Until Midnight

UNTIL MIDNIGHT

Part Two:

"Emptiness "

Blow, ouch. He could feel the pain by just looking at her cold, yet desolate expression. "I--I'm sorry, I--"

"No, it's all right, Harry, I understand," she said softly, "and I will respect that."

Goodness. That was worse than a kick in the delicate parts. Harry looked down and nodded. "Thank you," he said half-heartedly.

"I don't, really, but I have always backed you up, mate," Ron put in in a voic that was about to crack, but it didn't.

Harry looked up at his best male friend and forced a smile. "You haven't." The smile came more genuinely as he shared it with Ron.

The red-haired boy responded the gesture. "But that doesn't count! Those were... special situations," he defended, laughing.

"No they weren't! You were mean and insuffereable!"

"I was not! And you weren't exactly Mr.Congeniality, I must add."

At this, Harry started to laugh and looked at where Hermione was a moment ago to share the laugh about the coincidence with the muggle movie, but she wasn't there anymore. Deep emptiness filled him for a moment and then he shook his head and turned to Ron. "Where did she go?"

The boy frowned and looked around. "No idea," he shrugged.

Almost immediately, Harry turned and walked out. He knocked on the bathroom door, bad time, Fred and Angelina again. After a "get a room," and a "you kicked us out of it" in response, he closed the door with a shiver and a laugh. Back to the quest. Downstairs, two million people asking him where he'd been and one more million pats in the back later, he reached the kitchen to find Ginny snogging Neville.

"Ginny!"

"What?!"

"Never mind." He looked away and walked out. Where the hell has she gone to? He was staring to get worried. Back upstairs. Dudley's room. Nothing. The Dursleys are in Vernon's room, so fat chance.

She couldn't be that stupid, could she?

As he hurried outside the backyard and crossed Magnolia Crescent, something deep inside his chest was choking him. A sensation he had only felt once before. Complete and total anguish for Hermione. What if something happened to her? Merlin knows he would go crazy and that his insides would be consumed into the hole that would be there instead. He hurried his pace.

In less than two minutes, Harry had reached the turn into Magnolia Road and was heading toward the play park, when he saw brown hair flying with the wind and a thin scarf around the woman's neck. He hurried and was about five meters from reaching Hermione, when a red flash of light hit him square on the chest, and he was certainly not prepared for an attack, so he couldn't deflect it. And everything went dark.

Big brown, scared eyes were looking at naked green ones when he opened them. He saw two Hermiones and squeezed his eyes to clear his vision. Finally there was only one and he heard bits and parts of a neverending sentence: "...come running... you scared the light out of me... what were you thinking..."

"Mione..." he muttered, "what happened?" Before he could ask anything else, he was choked by a tight embrace.

Her cheeks flushed and she bit her bottom lip. "Yes, I just heard footsteps and just attacked, without looking! I'm sorry, Harry."

"You stunned me?" he asked, incorporating at last and sitting up.

She took a deep breath and kissed his forehead. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to attack you," she finally got out and recieved a bewildered look from her friend, who was rubbing his right side temple. "I thought something had happened to you, your head bumped hard against the bins, and you weren't waking up..." A verborrea overwhelmed his still idle senses.

"Mione... please stop." He tried to sit up and got a bit dizzy, but Hermione caught him before he fell back down. "Calm down," he whispered and took a hand to his head, where a bump had already grown big.

"What were you thinking walking outside at this time of night, by yourself?" he snapped and Hermione looked away. He pulled her face back and saw some tears brightening her eyes. "Mione? What's wrong?" he tried pathetically.

Hermione brushed the tears away quickly and shook her head. "Nothing, nothing, really. I just wanted to come out, and I was alert."

"Yeah, I can certainly see that," he said sarcastically and took a hand to his head again. "But why are you crying?"

"I'm not, don't worry."

"I think I deserve a little more credit. Don't you?"

She half smiled and nodded. "I'm sorry, you just took me by surprise with that request, that's all."

Harry sighed; he knew that's what it was about. "But you do understand, don't you? It's not like I don't love you or anything, I just need to--I don't know, let you guys grow by yourselves... wait., that didn't come out right," he rubbed the back of his neck, "just that I feel this war has taken too much of you and in many ways it's my fault, so I want to... like... give you the chance... wait, that didn't come out right either, oh I am so terrible at this," he complained and Hermione laughed, raising her hand to his face.

"I understand, don't worry?" she said softly. "And I am not going to try and convince you otherwise, I can see you made up your mind and ti won't be of any use for me to try and talk some sense into you," she laughed again. The sound of her laugh was really adorable. "I guess I just--" she stopped and stood, turning half her back on Harry, who followed her lead. "I guess I just thought we would e together after the war, that's all," she stopped and a rather shocked silence followed. "I mean... all of us, you know?"

"Oh yeah, I do, don't worry," Harry hurried to say and hugged her from the back, kissing her cheek. "For what it's worth, I don't know what I'll do without you guys, assuming I survive, of course."

She pushed him away. "Of course you will, don't be stupid, Harry!"

"All right, we will..." he gave her and smiled a bit. "Should we go back? It's not safe here." He offered her his hand and she took it.

What Harry didn't notice was the shiver and blush that rushed to Hermione's face when he hugged her from behind and kissed her. Would he ever?