Sage | H. GRANGER

thirty six

"Hermione is asleep, Harry. I'll tell her to go find you when she wakes up." Sage spoke, attempting to close the door. Harry put his hand on the door, stopping it from closing on him.

"No, I was actually looking for you."

"What for?" Sage asked, anxiety building up inside her.

"I wanted to talk to you for a bit." Harry then peered over her shoulder at the sleeping figure on her bed. "Privately."

Sage gulped and nodded. She walked out of her room, gently shutting the door behind her. She followed Harry without a word, her steps hesitant. They walked into a room that she assumed was his and Ron's. Sage wrapped her arms around herself, almost as if to protect herself from the blow to come.

"I wanted to apologize." Harry spoke, his eyes trained to the the ground. Sage didn't speak, instead she waited for him to continue. Harry gulped and looked up to meet her gaze. "I-I assumed the worse of you and I shouldn't have. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt."

"Stop it, Harry. You don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong; you had every right to think the worse of me. I became a death eater for fucks' sake. I was the worse of the worse and I always will be, so just do us both a favor and stop while you're ahead." Sage spoke tiredly. Harry frowned as he began to notice just how deeply wreaked the girl in front of him was. Back then, before they had ever spoken a word to one another, he knew that Sage Whitaker was a force to be reckoned with.

"Was that it?" Sage asked, pulling Harry from his thoughts. Harry frowned and looked at Sage with confusion.

"I know you may think that you don't deserve this, Sage, but you do." Harry stood from his seat on the messy bed and walked towards her. Sage wanted to flinch back, but she stood her ground. "You aren't a bad person, not even close."

Sage searched his face for any sign of deceit, but all she found was genuine emotion. She blinked away the tears that had began to well up in her eyes. She desperately to believe his words, but she just couldn't. The inky black scar on her left arm would always be a reminder of how much of a monster she was.

"Why would you say that? You don't know me or any of the things i've done." Sage questioned, her eyes leaving those of the boy who stood in front of her.

Harry laughed lightly, attracting Sage's attention once more. "Because, Hermione loves you and that means something, Sage."

Sage felt a smile pull at her lips. He was right. Hermione deeply loved Sage and Sage loved Hermione. And that was enough to convince Sage that maybe, just maybe, Harry was telling the truth. So, Sage nodded silently, accepting Harry's apology. Harry smiled a tight-lipped smile and walked past Sage without another word.

"Harry." Sage had called out without turning to face him. She could feel the cold touch of tears sliding down her cheek like a serene river. Harry stopped in the doorway, turning to look at the girl who had her back to him. "Thank you."

With those two words, Harry faintly smiled and walked out of the room. Just as he did so, Hermione had slowly emerged from her room, rubbing her eyes to rid the sleep from it. She furrowed her brows at Harry.

"Were you talking to Sage just now?" She asked lightly, her voice soft. Harry nodded and pointed to the door that he had walked out of and continued his way down the stairs. Hermione walked to the room and pushed her door open gently.