A Young Wizard's Journey - The Chamber of Secrets

Building Feelings

Summer was much rougher than Y/N thought it would be. For the first week or two he was okay. Writing back and forth with Hermione almost hourly, he kept in fairly regular contact with Ron and had even sent a couple of letters to Harry. Harry hadn't responded yet, but both Ron and Hermione said he hadn't responded to them either. Y/N imagined it was something to do with his aunt and uncle and he'd respond when he got the chance.

He'd also managed to properly speak to his mum. He could whilst in Hogwarts obviously, but not mother to son. There was always that layer of her being his head of house and deputy headmistress. She'd given him one last berating over his actions against Quirrell, but after that she had actually told him that she was proud of him. Despite her anger, she was proud that he'd moved to stop Quirrell and done his best to defend his friends.

All in all, the first few weeks were quite relaxing. It was after then that things began to slump. He missed his friends; he'd still heard nothing from Harry and he was getting worried. He could tell that Ron and Hermione were too. He also found himself searching his feelings for a while.

There were a good few days that he found himself glancing back towards his journal right after responding to her, or idly thinking about sending Ves to Hermione with a letter despite them talking every day. He wanted nothing more than to hear her voice again and to see her. He'd done his thinking over the summer, and he knew now what he felt. She wasn't just his best friend. He had a massive crush on her.

He thought Hermione probably felt the same. She messed with him a lot, but she had said about a date during their last year and hadn't her dad said he approved? What else could that mean? She at least cared about him. He'd have to see what happened when he saw her, but he was fairly confident on how he felt.

They'd also spoken about visiting each other over the holidays. Hermione said some work was being done at her house, however Y/N had offered the spare room they had. He'd had to ask his mums permission first for the obvious reasons, but also because she was always unsure on people going into that room. However, she agreed with no argument.

And so it was that he and his mum were in the spare bedroom dusting off some of the furniture in there. It was a decent sized room, with a desk, a wooden wardrobe and a rather intricately carved wooden double bed that his mum had said had been gifted to the previous owner.

He had asked who the previous owner had been, but Minerva had shaken her head saying that she wasn't ready to speak of it yet. Y/N did not wish to push, she would tell him when she was ready. He knew that.

'You sure you're okay with 'Mione staying in here?' he'd asked her.

'Of course I am. Miss Granger is polite and I know she'll look after this place. And plus, I'm not having her share your room.'

Y/N went red at the implication, but McGonagall merely chuckled at him as she piled up old clothes that had previously been in the wardrobe.

'I've also seen how much you miss her,' she said seriously, 'and I'm more than happy to have her here for a few days if it brings a smile back to your face.'

Y/N felt confused. He hadn't been that down had he? He'd definitely been feeling a bit put out, but he wasn't THAT out of character. At least he didn't think so.

He agreed a day with Hermione and they agreed she'd stay for 3 days; it was the only time she got to spend with her family so he didn't want to take up too much of it, and he was expecting a message from Ron soon to tell both of them to join him at the burrow, so the amount of time she'd get with them was already limited.

The evening before he was due to meet Hermione, she was heading to the Leaky Cauldron and he was going to help her floo powder to them, Y/N was sat downstairs eating alone. With term having ended not long-ago, Minerva was still grading some old exam papers that she hadn't managed to get around to before they'd started cleaning the spare room.