Vanilla

Chapter 1: The Beginning

It had been two days since he left. Two excruciatingly long days. No matter how hard they tried to forget, they couldn't. The anger and the resentment was still palpable in the tent. Both occupants hated feeling this way. They had been through so much, and before this they had faced everything together, side-by-side. Now the third member of the illustrious trio had abandoned them in the middle of their most important mission.

Words never meant to be said were. Feelings and emotions that were never supposed to be let out exploded. The threesome was now a pair. Since the other left, no words had been spoken between the two that remained. It hurt too much they told themselves. Neither wanted to talk about it. That was what they assumed.

Harry was sitting at the front of the tent, staring lazily into the small fire that was burning in front of him. The warmth from it felt good on his face. It was nighttime, and the temperature was dropping steadily. It was his turn to keep guard while Hermione slept. At least she was trying. Harry thought she looked horrible since Ron left. It looked like she hadn't slept since. They both weren't eating well, and were deeply hurt that their best friend had given up on not only their mission, but also seemingly their friendship.

Harry pulled the Marauders Map out of his pocket, tapped it with his wand, and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The ink on the old parchment spread out, laying out a map of Hogwarts. Little dots were milling about the school, but his eyes sought one in particular. He finally found it, and began watching Ginny's unmoving dot. 'She must be asleep,' he thought to himself.

The past year had been hard on Harry. Heck, his entire life had been hard. It seemed that he had finally found a girl that would truly make him happy in Ginny. Their relationship was but a dream to Harry, something that normal people had, not him. It was the most blissful month or so of his life. But after Dumbledore died, that dream was shattered into a million pieces. His life wasn't normal. His life wasn't blissful. His life was full of tragedy, of sorrow, and pain. Dumbledore's death was only the latest blow to his cared deeply for Ginny, 'That's why I broke it off with her,' he kept telling himself. He wanted to keep her safe. He wished to have that feeling of a normal life back. But was it that he wished for, or was it Ginny? Was Ginny the reason for that feeling? He had nothing to compare the feeling too. Cho could hardly be considered a good comparison. Ginny kissed him passionately before he left the Burrow, which to him, meant that she wasn't ready to give up. That made Harry feel good, but it didn't answer any of his suspicions.

Harry was startled out of his thoughts by a sound coming from behind him. His heart sunk when he realized what it was. It was a sound he had heard a lot of in the past two days, yet he tried hard to ignore it. He didn't know why he did, because that would be what bad friends do. He hadn't tried to reach out. He didn't deal with situations like this very well, at least with Cho anyway.

It broke Harry's heart to hear Hermione crying again. He wanted to help, but didn't know how. Dealing with girls was bad enough, but crying girls? This was something that Harry dreaded. His first kiss had been a rather wet one with Cho crying. Their entire "relationship" was like that though. But an overriding thought permeated Harry's thoughts, 'Hermione's different, she's my best friend, I should do something,' he thought to himself over and over. That something however, he had no clue as to what. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder. His eyes found Hermione's bed. He saw the lump that was lying there, and watched as she was curled up, sobbing once more.

Harry continued to gaze upon her, and his thoughts continued to be of her. Hermione had always been there for him; this was just one more example on the long list. In a way, Ron was right. 'She did choose me over him.' She had stayed behind, to help him, Ron didn't. Hermione had always looked out for him, even when they disagreed. Those times brought them closer together, because it proved nothing could come between them. Harry thought back to all the disagreements he and Hermione had had over the course of their first true problem came from the Firebolt that had been sent to him in third year. She had persisted that the Firebolt could be cursed. She had argued that Sirius Black, who was apparently searching for Harry to kill him, could have sent it. It turned out she was both right and wrong. It was sent by Sirius, not to curse or kill him, but to make up for all the holidays he had missed by being imprisoned in Azkaban for all those years.