The Ritual

Please everyone review, mean or nice, I want to make it better

Everyone this is a fic that was orignally posted on Fanfic.net. An author wrote a one time shot, and me and my friends were completely upset by this because we were completely inlove with it, so I contacted the author and she said I could continue it, so here I am!! (Hopefully I did this right, I clicked alot of things, but that\'s all later in the fic!!)

Disclaimer: I own them!!! I swear I do...ok I don\'t, but in my dreams they are all mine, all mine I say!!!!!!!! Oh if only I owned them, all the fun I would have!!

Please Review!! Tell me what you hate, what you like, if I write a character completely against there normal self, tell me and I will take it into advisement to change, this story is for your enjoyment!!

Chapter 4: Bloodshot and tearstained

Three weeks had passed since they had graduated from Hogwarts. Hermione had refused to come out of her room. She barely ate anything, occasionally leaving her room around 4 in the morning to wander the hallways of Grimmauld Place, and to occasionally shower.

This had left the boys puzzled. Hermione always being one to lecture them about everything, from eating enough to the amount of dirt under there nails, her remaining in her room, and not eating just didn’t suit her at all, and they were worried. They considered calling a healer, or getting her an appointment at Saint Mungos. To get her there, they thought about the floo network, throwing a little bit of the floo powder on the fire, and possibly just shoving her in. duties

Ron had decided long ago that, “Hermione has gone bonkers and that is that”. Harry wasn’t yet ready to agree with his best friend. He realized what she was going through, because Harry went through the exact same thing. She was grieving, just like he did after Sirius died. The only question left in Harry’s mind is, who, who was Hermione grieving over.

After another morning of the breakfast being just Ron and him, he cracked. He ran the stairs, banging on the door. “Hermione let me in!” Harry’s voice had a harsh sound to his voice. He continued to pound on the door. After about five minutes of staring at the door, and not hearing any sound, worry set it. “ ‘Mione please let me in?” he voiced pleaded with the door. When still silence answered him, he panicked. Trying the knob to the door, to no avail, it was locked. Trying to knock down the door by running at it, because remembering that being a wizard has its advantages.

“Alohomora” he whispers to the door.

The door creaked slightly as it opened, and the floor groaned under his weight as he entered Hermione’s room, him slightly cursing the noise all the while.

Harry moved awkwardly into Hermione’s room. “Hermione are you decent?” Harry started to shake his head, slightly berating himself for saying the stupidest thing possible.

“Go away” came a pitiful voice from under the covers.

Harry moved a few more steps inside the room, timidly towards Hermione’s bed. “Some hero you are, too scared to even go near her.” he silently chastised himself as his behavior.

“Hermione, me and Ron are worried about you”

Hermione sat up in bed at that. Rubbing her eyes, looking towards who had entered her darken sanctuary.

“Harry?” Hermione questioned into the abyss, only seeing a figure standing there. “It is you Harry, right?”

“Lumos” Harry whispered again. “Yeah” he said, nervously running his fingers through his already disheveled hair. He caught site of Hermione, her hair more of a messy then usual. Her eyes puffy and blood shot.

Hermione covers her face from the light, burying her head under one of the pillows; she groans something along the lines of too bright, she reaches for her wand. She pointed it to a flat candle holder on her desk, mumbling a incantation, small blue flames appears, Hermione’s specialty, and one of her favorite spells since her first year. She points her want towards Harry, muttering Extinguish then the light from Harry’s wand disappears.

“Much better” Hermione says, with a slight smile gracing her face.

Harry took the remaining steps that separated himself and her. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his interlaced hand.

At seeing Harry’s look of distress Hermione scooted closer to Harry. She tentively reached a hand out, lightly caressing his shoulder in comfort. “Hermione”

“Yes Harry” She had, moving herself a little closer to Harry so that she could see his face.

“Are you ok?”

Hermione was in shock from what Harry said. Why would anyone comfort her? As she was just about ready to scold Harry for the thought, her mind drifted back to Draco, and she curled into herself. The feel of Harry’s robes underneath her fingers drought the thought of Hogwarts flooding back to her. Tears poured from her eyes.

Harry had turned towards Hermione to see why she had remained so quite, only too see her crying. He moved closer, patting her on her shoulder, feeling slightly awkward and shy. She moved closer to Harry, placing her head on his shoulder, rapping her arms around him crying harder. Harry brought his arms around Hermione, drawing her closer, occasionally caressing her back as he left he finish crying. Finally she moved away from Harry, wiping her face with the sleeves of her robes, and if Harry’s guess was right, they were the same robes that she wore when they got her. She really was a messy.

She smiled a pathetic smile, mostly for show then anything, her eyes looked like they were ready to let the tears fall all over again. She looked to wear she had had her head placed, letting out a small laugh. “Sorry, about your robes”

“No problem” Harry said, just happy that Hermione had laughed.

Harry looked around the room, spying a box of Kleenex he handed them to her. “Thanks. Harry you must think awful of me now because of me crying like that.”

Harry could not really believe what he was hearing; Hermione was apologies for being upset. Hearing Hermione say that was like her saying that she wanted a house elf to pick up after her. “No, I would never think of you as a child ‘Mione, I have always thought you were fantastic.”

Hermione stared at Harry in confusion from what he was saying; she stopped wiping the tears from her face, instead deciding to stare at him instead. Hermione’s mind slipped back to something that Lavender Brown had said to her about Harry. She once told her that Harry liked Hermione, and had been carrying a flame for her for quite sometime. Hermione never really believed it, but it made sense in a way. Harry did act awfully weird about her dating Victor Krum, and never gave reason for it. In fact, anytime Hermione had someone got herself got in a girl talk with one of the other Gryffindor’s Harry seemed to sulk away. Hermione shook her head, clearing her thoughts as she realized that Harry’s lips were moving, “I’m sorry, what did you say Harry?”

“I was just wondering if you would…” Harry paused searching for the right words “Like to get out of the house for a bit”, he paused taking a deep breath before he said the hardest part “And get a butter beer with me?”

Hermione’s shock was evident in her face once it finally dawned on her what Harry had just asked.

~*~

Both Harry and Hermione sat talking in the room for hours, long after the sun had set and Ron had retired to bed. Afterwards Harry left Hermione’s room hungry for a late night snack before bed. Harry sat down in the kitchen alone thinking for a while afterwards about what he had just done. He couldn’t have helped himself, the way she sat there deep in thought, unknowingly biting her bottom lip, she was a vision of beauty. Harry smacked his head in annoyance once he realized that he didn’t even get to the reason he went in there in the first place …well he could always get to it over the butter beer, or save that for another date.