Baby, I Love You

Baby, I Love You

"Blessed and cursed on the same day . . . the day that I first felt the power of you . . . inside of me, such a strong feeling . . . there comes a time in everyone's life . . . when you know, and everyone around you knows . . . that everything is changed . . . you're not the same . . . it's a new day . . ."
~Jennifer Lopez~

Harry Potter gave his best friend Hermione Granger an odd look as she guided him to one of the couches in the now-empty Gryffindor common room and motioned for him to sit down. He did so, eyebrows raised as she started to pace in front of the fireplace, her graduation robes swishing about as she did so.

"‘Mione?" he asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah . . . ," she said distractedly, deep in thought, as though she were trying to find the words to say what was on her mind. Coming to her senses, she stopped in her tracks and spoke again. "I mean . . . no . . . I mean . . ." Harry chuckled. Her stomach was twisting in and out of knots, and her heart was racing. There was so much she wanted . . . no . . . needed . . . to say to him.

"You can tell me anything. You know that. Just . . . spit it out," he said, giving her a comforting, familiar grin. The mischievous glint in his amazing green eyes just succeeded in making her more nervous. She stood still for a moment, wobbling her knees anxiously as though she were a small child that needed to use the restroom. There was no easy way about saying what she wanted to say.

"Look . . . you know I love Ron to death . . . I mean . . . he's wonderful and all. And we've been together for nearly two years now. And as hard as he's been trying to hide it - you and I both know he's planning on proposing to me tonight at the party," she began, speaking so quickly it was hard to understand her.

"I don't know anything about it," Harry said in an innocent tone, though the pink-tinge suddenly rising in his cheeks said otherwise. She gave him a stern look, and he quickly grew quiet again. "Keep going . . ."

"He's planning on proposing to me . . . and while there's a part of me that wants that . . . that can see myself spending the rest of my life with him . . . There's just all these doubts in the back of my mind . . . these . . . what ifs," she continued. "There are just so many opportunities available to me right now . . . the future is so . . . well . . . it's just that so much has happened to us over the years - so much pain, so many battles and deaths . . . I've learned the hard way that you can't live a life full of regrets and what ifs. You have to follow every path straight down to its end, wherever that may lead you. And I just feel like . . . if I marry Ron . . . with all these unanswered questions and untread paths in my life . . . I'm going to end up really miserable one day, filled with regret, resentful of him and everyone else in my life . . . and I don't want that," she said. She stopped for a moment, out of breath, before beginning again, starting to pace once more. Harry was growing confused now. What in the world was she trying to say? She was babbling and rambling on, sure - but he could tell something was bothering her. She was usually so composed and at ease speaking. There was a point she was trying to make, however inarticulately.

"There are just so many possibilities ahead of us . . . and I don't want to choose the wrong one. I don't want to walk away from this room feeling like . . . if I had just said something . . . just opened up my heart a little . . . that things might have turned out differently . . ." She stopped again and sank down into a chair, burying her head in her hands with a sigh. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. He opened his mouth, trying to form words, but nothing came out.

"What are you trying to say, ‘Mione? ‘Cause you're not making much sense right now," he finally managed. She let out another sigh, this time shaky, tears streaming down her cheeks as she looked up at him. Her cinnamon eyes burned with a passion and a fear he'd never seen before as she gazed sadly at him.

"What . . . what I'm trying to say is . . . ," she let out another sigh, "It's really hard to say what I'm trying to say. It's just . . . we've been best friends for seven years . . . incredibly close . . . and there's always been this unresolved . . . I know we tried dating once . . . and I got freaked out and broke it off . . . But there's always just been something there . . . this connection between you and me . . . this level of feeling that I've never had with anyone else, not even Ron. And I don't want to leave this school . . . you . . . without atleast having told you how I feel . . . without having some closure on this, so I can't say I have any regrets for how it all turned out in the end. I want to be totally sure that I'm with the right person." Tears filled her eyes again, and she looked down at her hands, unable to look him in the eye any longer. Harry's heart swelled as he suddenly realized what she was on about, and his eyes widened in shock.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that . . . well . . . I love you, Harry. Very, very much. I always have. If I honestly thought there was a chance . . . ," she trailed off, her voice breaking. "And while I don't expect anything out of telling you that . . . I just feel better having said it. Knowing that I was, at the very least, honest about how I feel," she finished finally, with a nod and a shy shrug. "And now that I've said that and made a complete fool out of myself, we have a graduation ceremony to get to." With that, she stood up and made toward the portrait entrance.

Harry sat there for a moment in complete shock at what had just been said. He put a hand to his chin, closing his eyes as hot tears burned behind them, thinking. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, too, that he'd always felt the connection between them just as she did. But to do that would mean hurting Ron, and he wasn't sure he could do that. Ron had been planning his proposal for weeks. Harry had even helped him pick out the bloody ring, a small, solitary, princess-cut diamond in a white gold setting. He couldn't stab Ron in the back like that. But he couldn't deny his feelings either, and he knew very well that seeing her marry Ron would just kill him. Because it was him that she should be marrying, him that she loved. And Ron would be angry - but he would understand eventually. Because there was no way in the world he would want to stand in the way of real love.

"Wait," Harry croaked, his voice hoarse as the tears began to trickle down his cheeks. He stood up and walked around the couch to where she stood at the doorway, hand on the door. He smiled at her, letting out a little laugh as he pushed a strand of her perfectly curled, chestnut hair out of her eyes. Slowly, he stroked her cheek, his hand sliding down to her chin, putting a finger under it as he slowly leaned toward her.

As their lips met, their first real kiss, the feelings and desires of the past seven years poured out. Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her as his hands snaked their way around her waist and to the small of her back, supporting her gently and holding her tightly to him. Their tongues mingled hungrily, saying more than mere words could, her hands tangled in his thick black hair. As Harry drew back to look into her eyes, she let out a small whimper, then smiled lovingly at him.

"I love you, too," he said simply. And then kissed her again, because that was all that needed to be said . . .

"I have a special sort of affection for this particular graduating class, for from the first day they stepped into the Castle, they have had so many obstacles thrown their way . . ."

Downstairs in the Great Hall, the small crystal orb in Ronald Weasley's lap began to glow a bright pink as Dumbledore began his welcome speech. Grinning like a cheshire cat, he leaned over to his fiancee Lavendar Brown and whispered in her ear.

"Looks like you owe me 20 galleons, Brown," he said, laughing. She turned to him and smiled in shock.

"What? Already?" she asked as he nodded. "I thought for sure they wouldn't crack until your phony marriage proposal tonight!" Sighing, she reached inside of her robe and pulled out the money, plunking it down into his hand.

"Thank you. I knew they weren't going to be able to hold out until then," he said smugly. With a giggle, she kissed him quickly so no one saw. He reached over and took her left hand in his right, the diamond engagement ring Harry had helped him pick out a few weeks ago sparkling on her finger.

"Now we just have to tell them we set them up, since we knew they'd never get together on their own!" she whispered, laughing as Ron's eyes widened in fear at the possibility of facing both Harry and Hermione's wrath over his deception. Lavendar patted his hand consolingly, and they both turned their attention back to Dumbledore's speech, the orb Ron held glowing on as his two friends continued on upstairs . . .

The End