I Love You, Harry Potter

chapter 1

"Anibella! Over here!" shouted a voice from the middle of the crowd. Hermione! I rushed through the thick pack of wizarding students, who had filled up Platform 9 3/4 with trunks, brooms, owls, and just about every thing you could think of. I darted between all of the cloaked figures, trying not to knock anything off of my cart or anyone else's as I went. I hadn't seen Hermione since the end of fourth year. Although we had been sending letters back and forth, I still missed her like crazy. We had been friends and roommates since first year, but we rarely got to see each other over breaks.

After what had finally felt like an eternity of pushing through people, I finally saw her frizzy brown hair peaking through the crowd. I rushed up to her and gave her a huge hug.

"I missed you!" she said into my shoulder.

"I missed you too! We really need to work on meeting up during break!"

We both laughed and started to load our belongings into the Express. Even though this was our fifth year, I still got the same rush each time I stepped onto the train, being excited for what he next year had held for me. Hogwarts felt like home, more like home than my real one, and being away from it, made me feel like I was missing a piece of myself.

I followed Hermione through the isle down to an empty train car, where we took each took a seat across for the other, and chatted for a bit before Ron and Harry showed up.

Ron took a seat next to Hermione, as expected, he's had the biggest crush on her since first year. It's so painfully obvious, but for someone who's always the top student, Hermione hasn't seemed to notice yet. Harry and I have been trying to convince him to ask her out ever since the Yule Ball, but he's always refused to for some reason. I personally think it would be stupid not to because whether or not she realizes it, she feels the same way, I can tell.

Harry slid into the seat next to me, and I could feel the butterflies start to flutter about in my stomach. I suppose I always had a tiny crush on him, ever since first year. It never seemed that major so I never mentioned it any of my friends, it was just sort of there. Him and I were close friends, both being able to relate over the loss of a parent.

I had lost my mum when I was just a baby. She had been murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, after fighting against her and other Death Eaters loyal to He Who Shall Not be Named. I'm better off than Harry at least, who had lost both of his parents to the Dark Lord himself. We had bonded in first year after talking about our parents passing, and had been very close since that day.

We had begun to tell each other almost everything, it was like I had another half to me, one that belonged to me and one that belonged to him. We were connected.

I guess I maybe started liking him during winter holiday. I was leaving Hogwarts for the break to go see my father, and he was staying at school for the two weeks.

Before I had left we had met up in the gryffindor common room to exchange gifts. At first he was really confused when I had brought up the idea, because he hadn't ever received presents for Christmas until this point. I had gotten him a red sweater when I had gone to Hogsmeade with our class a few weeks prior, because he didn't have a good winter sweater and had always seemed cold. I wrapped it in a green paper bag that I had brought to school with me from home, and tied it up with brown yarn in a neat bow. He had the biggest smile on his face when he opened it up and he put it on right away, before handing me a small brown box.

I opened it up to reveal and delicate gold chain with a silver, sparkling daisy hanging from it.

"You said your mother's name was Daisy, and I know you've been wanting a new necklace ever since Fred broke your old one, so I thought you might like it." he had said in his squeaky voice at the time.

I had smiled at him and gave him a big hug, and he gently hugged me back, before letting me go to finish packing for home. All throughout break all I could think about was hugging him and how sweet his present was, and I would always reach down to touch the charm, to the point where it had just become an instinct to do. I think that's when little eleven year old me realized I had begun to like him, as more than just a friend.

We got closer as the years went by, and my little crush never went away. I had been hoping he would ask me to the ball in fourth year, but I knew that it was hopeless. He really like Cho at the time, and told me he had wanted to ask her to the Yule Ball. She had said no, and as bad as it sounds, I was slightly relieved. He still didn't ask me, and he had ended up going with Parvati Patil, but they had barely even danced together. I had spent the rest of the year hoping for him to ask me out, but it never happened.

It was fifth year now, and we were still just friends. We had writing back and forth over the summer a lot, though. He had been staying with the Weasley's, and would write to me about all of the crazy things the twins would do. The letters were mostly light-hearted but some of them were more complex, about the nightmares he was having. I would write back giving him advice, and trying to make him feel better, but I knew he was still terrified. The months flew by and before I knew it, I was back on the train seated right next to him, just like every other year.

"So Ani, are you trying out for the Quidditch team this year?" he asked me, snapping me back into reality.

"Not this year, maybe next."

Harry let out a quick laugh before saying, "You've been saying that since second year!"

"It seems scary!" I exclaimed.

In all honestly, I didn't have much interest in playing, I much preferred just watching Harry's matches. Unfortunately, Harry took me going to every match as me wanting to play it, instead of me just simply wanting to cheer him on. I had never really corrected him, I figured it was just easier to keep pushing it off then have to tell him the truth, which might give away some of my actual feelings towards him.

"You'd do great! Plus think about how much more time we'd have to hang out if you were on the team."

I knew that he meant this in an "oh we are best friends who spend a ton of time together this would just bring another opportunity" rather than a "I want to you to play so we can be together more often because I don't want to be just friends anymore", but I knew better.

But I could always hope.