This is Hermione's POV of chapter 27 of Daylight. I'd originally meant to publish this instead of Harry's POV, but I eventually decided Harry's flowed better with the story.
Hermione sat in one of the best seats by the fire in the Gryffindor Common room. She was writing a nice, long letter to Viktor and had already filled half a roll of parchment, which was dangling from the edge of the table. Ron was lying on the hearthrug, trying to finish his Transfiguration homework. They had been there in comfortable silence for almost half an hour when Harry finally returned from the Room of Requirement.
Hermione sighed a bit, relieved that he was back. She had been very worried that he had been caught by Filch, or, even worse, Umbridge.
"What kept you?" Ron asked, as Harry sank into the armchair next to Hermione's.
Harry didn't answer. Hermione peered at him over the top of her quill. The boy seemed to be in a state of shock. He had a glazed look in his eyes, which made Hermione suspect a certain Ravenclaw had been the reason behind him staying out so long. She didn't want to interrogate him, but eventually her curiosity got the best of her.
"Are you all right, Harry?" she asked. Harry gave a halfhearted shrug.
Hermione bit her lip to refrain from smirking. It definitely had something to do with Cho Chang.
"What's up?" said Ron, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?"
Harry hesitated. He opened his mouth to reply, then shut it and shook his head slightly. Hermione was starting to get impatient and decided it was high time she took matters into her own hands.
"Is it Cho?" she asked in a businesslike way. "Did she corner you after the meeting?"
Harry nodded, a look of numb surprise on his face. Ron sniggered, but Hermione shot him a sharp look, and he cut himself off quickly, turning his mirthful noise into a pitiful imitation of a cough.
"So — er — what did she want?" he asked in a mock casual voice.
"She —" Harry began, rather hoarsely. He cleared his throat and tried again. "She — er —"
"Did you kiss?" asked Hermione briskly.
Ron sat up so fast that he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug. Disregarding this completely he stared avidly at Harry.
"Well?" he demanded.
Harry looked from Ron's expression of mingled curiosity and hilarity to Hermione's slight frown, and nodded.
"HA!" Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter that made several timid-looking second years over beside the window jump. A reluctant grin spread over Harry's face as he watched Ron rolling around on the hearthrug. Hermione gave Ron a look of deep disgust and returned to her letter.
He is so insensitive, Hermione fumed. Couldn't he see that this was entirely new territory for Harry? The poor boy had finally seen results from his crush. He needed support and encouragement from the two of them, not loads of teasing!
"Well?" Ron said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"
Harry considered for a moment.
"Wet," he said truthfully.
Hermione frowned in confusion. Ron made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard to tell.
"Because she was crying," Harry continued heavily.
Ah. That explained it. Hermione turned her main focus back to her letter.
"Oh," said Ron, his smile fading slightly. "Are you that bad at kissing?"
"Dunno," said Harry, who hadn't considered this, and immediately felt worried. "Maybe I am."
Hermione rolled her eyes, unable to concentrate with their comments of sheer obliviousness interrupting her.
"Of course you're not," she said, not pausing her writing.
Ron sent her a bewildered look at her and demanded in a sharp voice, "How do you know?"
Hermione realized she'd made it sound like she knew this from experience. Obviously she didn't — she thought of Harry as the brother she never had and would never think of kissing him — but she supposed that Ron probably didn't know that.
"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days," she explained. "She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."
"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," said Ron, grinning.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Ron," she said in a dignified voice, dipping the point of her quill into her ink pot, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet. And you should thank your lucky stars that Ash isn't here to hit you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ron indignantly. "What sort of person cries while someone's kissing them?"
"Yeah," said Harry, slightly desperately, "who does?"
Poor, oblivious boys, she thought pityingly. "Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?"
"No," said Harry and Ron together.
Hermione sighed and laid down her quill. "Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful." She frowned in thought, then added, "Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."
A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."
"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have, Ron," sighed Hermione as she picked up her quill again.
"She was the one who started it," said Harry. "I wouldn't've — she just sort of came at me — and next thing she's crying all over me — I didn't know what to do —"
"Don't blame you, mate," said Ron, looking alarmed at the very thought.
"You just had to be nice to her," said Hermione, looking up anxiously. "You were, weren't you?"
"Well," said Harry, sounding a bit too sheepish for Hermione's liking, "I sort of — patted her on the back a bit."
Hermione closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards, sighing. She tried very hard not to roll her eyes — the poor boys had no idea how a girl's mind worked; she couldn't blame them. When she opened her eyes she looked over at the chair in which Ash normally sat. Ash, of course, wasn't there; she was across the Atlantic at Camp Half-Blood. Hermione missed her and wished that she was here now. However, she decided even just the knowledge that if Ash were here she'd understand exactly how stupid Harry and Ron were when it came to girls was enough. If Ash had been here, they probably would've spent the rest of the night giggling about it when they went up to their dorm.
Hermione sighed again and looked back at Harry.
"Well," she said finally, I suppose it could have been worse. Are you going to see her again?"
"I'll have to, won't I?" Harry replied evasively. "We've got D.A. meetings, haven't we?"
"You know what I mean," said Hermione impatiently.
Harry said nothing, but he seemed slightly panicked at the idea of asking Cho out.
Poor, oblivious boy, Hermione thought again, for what had to have been the billionth time.
"Oh well," she said distantly, burying herself in her letter once more, "you'll have plenty of opportunities to ask her..."
"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" asked Ron.
"Don't be silly," she told him, "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you, Harry?"
Harry frowned, remaining silent for a few moments. Then he muttered, mostly to himself, "But what about Ash?"
Then he cast a panicked glance at Ron and Hermione. Apparently he hadn't meant to say that out loud. He hadn't meant for the two of them to hear that. Unfortunately for him, they had. Hermione had to look over at Ron to make sure she hadn't been the only one to hear that. She couldn't believe Harry had actually said that, and judging by the look on Ron's face, neither could he.
"Ash?" he repeated, throwing Hermione a significant glance. After their last DA lesson, Hermione had agreed to bet five sickles on whom Harry fancied. Hermione had thought it was obvious: Harry liked Cho. But Ron insisted after one of Ash's demonstrations that Harry was looking rather flustered to have been pinned down by their blonde friend, too flustered for him to just consider her a friend. Hermione, who prided herself on being more attuned to people's feelings than Ron, even if she wasn't the most sympathetic person ever, believed his face was red from the exertion of being judo-flipped and pinned by Ash.
She'd been certain that Harry admitting to kissing Cho was a guarantee of her winning the bet, but now he was telling them that he fancied Ash? Of course, it made sense, but still. Hermione hated being wrong, especially when it meant Ron was right.
"Hang on." Hermione held her hands up in a hold-everything gesture, hoping that she wasn't about to lose five sickles to Ron, the least empathetic person to ever walk the earth, "You don't fancy Cho? You fancy Ash?"
Harry was frozen in place, clearly trying to think of a way to backpedal, to somehow take back the words he'd just said, but Hermione wasn't going to let him, and neither was Ron, especially not after they'd bet on it.
"Well... yeah," Harry finally said.
Ron gave a loud "HA!" and pointed at Hermione, who was starting to feel rather annoyed and, if she was being honest, grumpy. She couldn't believe she'd lost this bet.
"Pay up, Hermione!" Ron said gleefully. "I told you! I bloody told you!"
Hermione rummaged in her pockets, then finally processed what Harry had said and huffed, grumbling, "You really had to say it out loud, didn't you, Harry?"
"I — what?" Harry demanded. "You bet on it?"
"Well, Ron mentioned after that one DA lesson where Ash showed us how to pin our opponent down that you looked so flustered when she demonstrated the technique on you. He said that you probably fancied her —"
"And Hermione swore up and down that there was no way you fancied Ash, that she's just a friend to you," Ron told him smugly. "Well, who's five sickles richer, Hermione?"
"Whatever, Ron," Hermione grumbled, handing over the money and throwing Ron a disgusted look when he kissed the coins very noisily. "Ugh."
"Maybe you should thank your lucky stars that Ash isn't here to hit you," Harry told her, staring at her disbelievingly.
"Oh, please, I'm not worried," Hermione said, waving him off. "You wouldn't have dared to say that with her in the room."
"Oh, really?" Ron said, grinning. "Would you be willing to bet on that?"
"No, thank you, I'd rather not have those coins back now that you've put your mouth on them," Hermione said airily. Harry snorted as Ron spluttered indignantly.
"Yeah, well, whatever," Ron said lamely in an attempt to regain his dignity.
Hermione returned her attention to Harry. "So... you really do fancy Ash?"
"Yeah," Harry muttered. "I guess."
Hermione tilted her head slightly. "How long?"
"I — I dunno. Since third year, I guess," He admitted. "Though I didn't really realize it until..."
Hermione gave him a knowing look. "Until she and Luke started seeing each other?"
"Yeah." Harry scoffed a bit. "Great timing, right?"
"Cheer up, mate," Ron said encouragingly. "Look, if we start now, we can send Luke packing by the end of term. I reckon the first thing we should do is —"
"Wait, hang on," Harry said. "You want to break them up?"
"Well, yeah, mate!" Ron exclaimed, clearly getting excited about this endeavor. "Y'know, I never really liked that bloke to begin with, he's rather annoying. Anyway —"
"You would actually do that for me?" Harry asked disbelievingly.
Ron shot him an indignant look. "Would I actually — come on, mate, you're my best friend, of course I'd do that for you. Hermione, too, if she has any value of our friendship. You'd do that, right, Hermione?"
Hermione frowned disapprovingly at the both of them. She could condone talking about another person's feelings, even betting on it as long as they didn't involve themselves directly, but this was where she drew the line. Ash was happy with Luke. She'd spent the whole summer waiting for Luke to ask her out. Then, when the oblivious boy finally did, she'd had to accept that a relationship between the two of them probably wouldn't work out if they remained long distance. Then she'd started feeling hopeful again when Luke announced he'd be returning to Hogwarts with her. And finally, he'd asked her out and they were actually together.
Hermione could tell from the way that they interacted that they were truly happy together. She wasn't very close with Luke, so she wasn't sure how he'd take it if they ever broke up, but she knew that even though they hadn't been together for long, Ash would most definitely be heartbroken. Knowing this, Hermione would never break them up on purpose.
This was a line she refused to cross; Ash's feelings were not to be toyed with.
"I would do it for Harry," she told the boys firmly, "but not if it's Ash."
Ron frowned. "Wait, what?"
"If we were talking about any other girl, I would agree straight away," she explained. "But this is Ash we're talking about."
"She's right," Harry admitted. Hermione was relieved that he was thinking along the same lines she'd been. "Look, we may not like Luke —"
"I don't mind him at all," Hermione interrupted, wanting to make that clear. She may not have been very close with him or his best friend, but she definitely didn't dislike him, especially not if he made Ash this happy. "It's the two of you who've got a problem with him."
"Fine, the two of us may not like Luke, but Ash is happy with him." Harry sighed. "If we break them up... making Ash unhappy isn't worth making her single again so I can ask her out."
Ron shook his head. "So you don't want to —"
"Of course he does, Ron," Hermione snapped. She couldn't believe he was still talking about this. He was so insensitive. "Look, what he's saying is that he values Ash's happiness over his own. And I think that's very mature and good of him."
She gave Harry an approving and encouraging look, hoping that he didn't change his mind about this.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry mumbled, clearly unsure how to respond to her praise.
She wanted to tell him that he still had a chance. Not all first loves lasted forever. She knew this from experience; she could sense her feelings for Viktor fading the longer they remained apart. She was still fond of him, there was no doubt about that, but she could only see him as a friend.
"Don't lose hope yet, Harry," she told him, "If it was meant to happen, it'll happen. She might break up with him on her own terms."
Harry smiled at her, and she knew for sure that he really did fancy Ash. As his attention turned to Ron, who'd started grumbling about his homework, Hermione smiled to herself.
Poor, oblivious boys, she thought fondly.
Can I tell you a secret? 👀
I've never done Hermione's POV for any fic before, and to be honest, I was kind of nervous to try because her thoughts are so much more organized than Ash's and Harry's (and mine lmao). I really hope I've done her justice, and I hope you guys liked it!
Enjoy and comment for more!
~~~~ Kingfisher ~~~~