Pierced (Completed)

Chapter 3: Betrayal

"I do care about you honing all of your powers, Harry, I really do," she said quietly. "But that's not what's bothering me."

"What is it, then?" he asked, feeling slightly reassured when he grabbed for her hand and she didn't pull away. She didn't make any move at all, though, which wasn't exactly the best of signs.

"I…I've helped you, stuck by your side, and I help train you," said Hermione solemnly. "Do you know how much it hurts that you feel the need to lie to me?"

The words were like an icy knife through Harry's heart as a thousand pound weight seemed to grow in his chest. "I-I don't—"

"But you just did," said Hermione. "If you haven't practiced something, then fine. I just wish you could trust me enough to tell the truth."

Harry had to suppress a smile despite the situation. "Erm…it wasn't exactly a trust issue, Hermione."

"Then what was it?" she asked in genuine confusion, her impatience growing.

"I hate disappointing you and I was afraid you were going to chew me out," Harry explained with a tentative smile.

Hermione wasn't smiling. "Well, you made me twice as disappointed as I would've been by lying to me. And about the chewing out thing. When I was younger, I was definitely more mature than you and Ron combined," said Hermione. Harry nodded in agreement; it was true. "But now…now we're adults. I've tried to ingrain hard work into your head for six years and now it's up to you to decide where you want to go in life. If you don't want to work hard, that's fine. I just wish…I-I just wish that if you can't work hard enough for yourself, than can I be selfish and ask that you work hard for me?" Harry felt his throat tightening. "Because I don't know what I would do if you died."

Harry raspily said, "I already have died," trying to lighten the atmosphere just a bit.

Hermione let out a small laugh as she wiped the tears out of her eyes. "That's not what I meant and you know it. I…I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," she admitted quietly.

Harry sighed and said, "Even when you're not chewing me out you somehow manage to make me promise to work harder."

Hermione gave him a small smile and a gentle hug, linking her arm through his as he tossed the invisibility cloak over the two of them. It was weird to think that just five years ago, the two of them plus Ron could fit under the cloak with room to spare. Now it was a very tight fit with just two of them.

They quietly walked up to Gryffindor Tower and Hermione gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek before going up the girls' stairs to go to bed.

Harry pulled out his wand and summoned the books he had regarding vampires that he had checked out from the library, not to mention a few that he had stolen from the restricted section. He had to discover if he had any more hidden powers. The possible power he was most interested in was the power of transformation, the only reference of which he had found had been referring to the muggle vampires transforming into bats. There was nothing on magical vampire transformation except for the fact that the consequences were unknown, thus the process was exceedingly dangerous.

The book he had found the most interesting so far but the least helpful was titled: 5,000 Little Known Facts about Magical Creatures. He had learned very much from it about all magical creatures but there seemed to be no organization to it, making him at least glance at every single fact to find out if it concerned information about vampires. He had read about half of it the night before and decided to try to finish it this night, flipping through page after page and only coming across a handful of vampire facts.