Not a Goodbye

Chapter 8

Hermione was right of course, Harry had another night of terrific sleep in Hermione's arms. When they woke, the sun shining in through Hermione's open window, Harry couldn't help but think how thankful for his girlfriend. She was the best thing to ever happen to him - he knew that now. He turned to the side, thinking he would see Hermione still laying there, but instead he was met with empty sheets. Harry hurried and stood, rushing to the door, his paranoia from the war coming to play. When he saw Hermione on the couch dressed in her robes and a book resting in her lap, all of his worries suddenly dissipated.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Hermione said with a smile, "I was wondering when you'd wake up,"

Harry smiled back and took a seat next to Hermione, kissing her on her cheek in the process. "You left me to wake up by myself," He frowned, "I thought something had happened to you."

Hermione leaned into his embrace and shook her head, "I woke up especially early today since it's our first day of lessons and I couldn't lay there in silence any longer so I came out here to read something."

Harry nodded, knowing that he was just letting his paranoia get the best of him. He shouldn't have been surprised, most days when he awoke at the Granger's house, she had already woken up and was sitting on her windowsill with a book in her lap. He also wasn't surprised that she was already ready for lessons as ever since first year, she was always excited to learn something new. Harry smiled again when Hermione began to ramble on about their schedules and how he should get dressed for breakfast.

Hermione watched as Harry walked to his own bedroom to change into his robes and she sunk into her seat with a smile planted on her face. She still couldn't believe that she had managed to get the most wonderful boy in the entire universe to date her. She couldn't believe that after all of those years of pining after him, Harry had actually been loving her just the same. When he returned from his room, Hermione immediately rose from her seat excitedly and bounded over to where her boyfriend stood. Harry was looking at the small kitchen that was placed in their common room, "You know we could just stay here for breakfast,"

From his tone, Hermione knew that it wasn't exactly the food he wanted to stay back for. Hermione looped her arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on the lips before pulling back. "Ron would kill us if we left him alone on the first breakfast back, and get your head out of the gutter, Harry."

As Hermione began to move her arms to her sides, Harry tugged her closer with his arms around her waist and kissed her on the mouth, not wanting to go anywhere. Hermione gave in to the gentle kiss and smiled, but eventually, and much too soon if you asked either of them, Hermione pulled back. "Oh come on, Mione, just stay here a little longer?"

Hermione bumped arms with Harry and began to walk to the door, "You have me every single day for the rest of our lives, Harry Potter, I think you can spare just this one morning."

***********

    Ron was already sitting at the Gryffindor table, stuffing his face in food when Harry and Hermione reached him. He barely made a noise of acknowledgement before he continued to pick up some pancakes and pile them on his plate. "I told you we could have stayed in the dorm."

Hermione rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, unimpressed with his statement. The first class was uneventful for Hermione as she had already learned all of the material, and it seemed blatantly obvious to everyone that she had mastered the class years prior. Harry couldn't help but stare at her the entire day, and his green eyes found it hard to leave the bushy haired girl. He was fascinated by the way that she carried herself, and it was like he was just noticing all of her little quirks for the first time.