little miss perfect ; hermoine granger

chapter 41

"AHHHH" I screamed, as I punched at whoever was grabbing me from behind. "Shit! Ah, stop!" A familiar voice said, as I turned around.

It was Fred. George was standing next to him, with a concerned look on his face. "Fred? George? You scared the hell out of m-" I started to shout, as George grabbed me and pulled me into a long embrace. Fred joined in, and I heard one of them say "No, you scared the hell out of us. Don't ever do that again, Ana."

As we pulled away from each other, I jokingly said "Well, I didn't have much of a choice in that, but I'll take it into consideration." Just seeing them again lifted my spirits so much, I loved them as if they were my brothers, and I thought I'd never see them again after everything that happened.

"We're serious. We...we thought you were gone, Ana. We didn't know what to do." George said, sounding like he was choking back a sob. I could tell that they'd been crying, and didn't want me to see. "I won't, promise. But quick question, I thought you guys didn't believe me. That I was the real me? So, what changed?" I asked.

"We knew it was you the whole time, Ana. The second we saw you out there, we could tell." Fred told me, and I smiled up at them. I pulled them both in for another hug, and said "Not to be sappy or anything, but I love you guys." I don't know if I've ever said that before, but it felt like a good time to admit it.

"Yeah, yeah, we love you too." Fred joked, as I pulled away from them again and said "I'm gonna go catch up with everyone else, gotta make sure they don't think i'm an imposter anymore."

I walked back out into the wide hallways, ones that I never thought I'd see again, and smiled. Even knowing that all of this wasn't over, and that me escaping was going to make things 100 times worse, I was happy. Because I was still here.

I made my way to the Gryffindor dorms, taking a deep breath before approaching the fat lady and telling her the password. I was nervous, like, really nervous to see everyone again. I imagine that by now everyone knows what happened, and that they're all going to believe that I'm not real, that I'm evil, or something. But right now, I don't care that much. I can deal with that later. I need to see Hermoine.

The passage in front of me opened slowly, leading to a basically empty common room. I'd almost forgotten how late it was. I held my breath as I stepped in, looking around for someone, anyone, until I saw everyone who had stayed back, everyone who had witnessed mine and Draco's "deaths", and simply said, "Hey."

They all turned around slowly, hearing the sound of my voice, and of course, the first person who came up to me was Hermoine. She practically ran to me, cupping my cheeks, and I knew what she was going to try to do. "Are you sure?" I whispered to her, asking if she really wanted to do this tonight, and she whispered back with a smile:

"I don't care what they think anymore. I want to be with you, and I don't wanna hide."

I smiled back at her as we collided, our lips moving together in harmony. I moved my hand up to her face, and I could feel her smiling within the kiss, as we pulled away, resting our foreheads against each other. But holy shit, we really just did that. Now everyone knows.

I stayed in our little bubble together for just a moment longer, not wanting to leave, not wanting to know what everyone else thought. I wanted it to be only us. But I know it couldn't be, because we just did this in front of everyone. We both turned to them, still holding onto each other. I could feel Hermoine shaking a little, and I assumed she could feel me doing the same.

Surprisingly, though, no one really looked shocked.

"Finally." Ginny said, with a smile, as she walked over to us, and gave me a huge hug. Like all of the other Weasleys, Ginny was like family to me. "Thank god you're okay. I don't know what I'd do without you, Ana. Also, congrats, I guess? I had a feeling you'd get together."

I laughed and said "Really? Damn, I thought we hid it better than that." Ginny laughed back, as everyone else came over, giving me hugs, saying good things about me and Hermoine, so that went A LOT better than I thought it would. The last person who came up to me was Ron, and I could tell that he'd been crying.

He walked up to me slowly, and grabbed me tightly, pulling me close to him. "Hey, what's this all abou-" I started to say, jokingly, but he cut me off, saying:

"I'm so sorry. I've been such a bloody idiot to you lately." He said, and I could hear all of the different emotions in his voice. "Don't apologize, Ron. Really, it's fi-" "No, it's not fine, Ana. I thought you died, and I realized how terrible of a person I was to you. I never thought I'd get to apologize, that-it messed with my head." He told me.

I'd never seen Ron act like this before. He was usually unapologetic about everything he did and said, so it was a huge surprise when he started talking like this. "Hey, it's okay. Don't worry about it, alright? Let's leave the past back there and focus on now. Focus on the fact that we're all okay." I told him, pulling myself out of the hug.

I smiled at him, trying to reassure him that it was okay, but then, I remembered. Shit. Draco. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but, um, do any of you guys know where Malfoy went? I kind of need to talk with him, like, right now, about everything." I asked, and Harry replied "Well honestly, we were too nervous about if you were real or not to focus on him. I don't know where the weasel is."

Terror etched across my face, as I thought of all the different scenarios that could be happening right now. One, and the best possibility, he could be in our common room, talking to Blaise and Pansy, or in his dorm brooding, or something. Worst case, he's already went back to the portkey and back to the manor, and told everyone what happened. 

God, if he did that, they're probably planning to come kill us all.