Blaze (Book 3 of the Light Series)

Chapter Twelve: Clearing the Air

"Mum and Dad are taking the children with them for the evening." Harry informed me when the family began leaving, taking Lily, James, and Albus with them.

"Why?" I asked, looking at him.

"I think a night alone will do us good. I want..., I want to have a serious conversation with you."

"Harry, why do I sense foreboding coming from you?" I stared into his eyes.

"I'm not trying to give that off. I just..., I want to clear the air between us. I want there to be nothing but love and happiness in our future." He told me.

"Harry, no matter how much we love each other, no relationship is filled with nothing but love and happiness. Sometimes we will quarrel and we will be angry at one another. That's a part of being married."

"Okay. I can understand that but I just..., I don't want that part of marriage to take away from the love we feel."

"It never will." I assured him, reaching up my hand to stroke his cheek.

"Hermione," he took my hand into his. "Even before the ritual and everything that's been happening, there was always an issue." He paused. "Since before we got married, you've doubted my love for you. You don't do it consciously but it's there and I hate that somehow I'm not doing enough to make absolutely sure you know that I truly love you."

"Harry, I know you love me. I've accepted that." I nodded at him.

"Really? So you're telling me that you have no fear in your heart that, now that Ginny is back and normal, I might choose her over you." He challenged me and I dropped my head.

"I want to say that I have no fear of that.., I want to but I don't know. Somewhere in me, I do think there is some fear. I mean," I turned to him. "Harry for years we were just.., friends. While we were in school, you seemed to fancy every girl out there except me. Ginny was even younger than all of us and you still noticed her before ever taking a second glance at me. We've always just strictly been friends." I shrugged.

"Love, if you think I didn't notice you as we grew up here together, you're a complete dimwit. I noticed everything about you. Of course I looked at you and could see myself fancying you. Honestly, everyone looked at us and assumed something was there. Anyone who knew us could feel the pull between us, I was never so daft that I didn't. But you're right. We were friends and..., Ron and you became more. At that point, two of my best mates were together and I wasn't going to muck it all up."

I scoffed. "Harry, Ron and I weren't together when you were stuck on Cho then moved on to Ginny. Ron and I weren't together when you reassured everyone that I was like a sister to you." I sighed. "Sometimes I'm positive that we don't make a bit of sense."

"We make all the sense in the world." He shot out before I could take my next breath. "I get it, Hermione. Our love isn't one that started out with us wanting to be together like we are now. We were kids. Can you honestly say you knew what you wanted back then? Can you honestly say you saw yourself where you are now when we were in our first year here? Our second? Any year? We grew up Hermione and, in doing so, we changed and our feelings changed.

"We could finally admit what was always there.., we could finally explore what this could be. Sweetheart, everyone, including Ron and Ginny, always saw what we hid from. They saw us together when we kept searching for something different." He took my head into his heads gently, forcing me to look directly at him which I had been avoiding while he spoke. "And you know what? I finally saw us together and I haven't looked back since.

"When I started to notice I had feelings for you, I didn't know what it meant for us. First, I began to catch myself staring at you. Then, I would catch my mind wondering to thoughts of you, some of which were very naughty considering we hadn't slept together before. When my birthday celebration came around and you set all that up.., I got butterflies in the pit of my stomach thinking about going out with you.