Harry Potter Male Reader Insert - Hermione x Male Reader

The Goblet of Fire

After yesterday's Welcome Back festivities, the Gryffindor house had grown tired of their common room. It took about one night of partying for the majority of the house to remember that the real excitement of Hogwarts, especially while the weather was still warm and the sun still set late, was elsewhere, in the fields, on the Quidditch pitch, near the water, or in one of the towers. Because of this, on the night before classes began, Y/N found himself alone in the Gryffindor common room.

Because he was alone, he was thinking about Hermione.

He'd spent all summer thinking about her and about their date at the end of last year. They'd sent a couple letters since then but nowhere near enough. He wanted to hear from her all the time. He wanted to listen to her talk for hours and hours about everything she'd done this summer, everything she'd thought about, everything that had made her excited or scared or worried.

If she'd thought about him at all. Did she think about him?

As if on cue, her shadow appeared on the staircase from the girls' dormitories. She was wearing her pajamas, plaid pants, and a Gryffindor short sleeved t-shirt. She looked good in red. He was glad they'd both been sorted here because it meant they could share moments in the common room like this one.

"Hermione," he called her name just to get to see her a little startled. Her surprise quickly turned to warmth as soon as they made eye contact. He patted the spot on the couch next to him. "Come sit?"

She nodded and crossed the room towards him, but rather than taking the seat next to him, she sat in the single chair closer to the fire, just across from him.

"Sorry," she said. "I'm just a bit cold."

"No problem," he said, though he couldn't help the bit of disappointment in his tone. "Fancy seeing you here."

"You too." She didn't look at him, just into the fire. Her voice was a little nervous, but he could've been imagining that. "I always forget you're a Gryffindor. You and I really could be Ravenclaws if you think about it."

"That's true," he nodded. "You're very wise. Must mean you're super brave, if it outweighs the intelligence enough to put you in Gryffindor."

At this, she looked at him, eyes glittering in response to the compliment. All of his doubts left him. She had to have feelings for him if she looked at him like that.

"You're sweet."

"I try." Should he quit while he was ahead?

"You too though."

"What?" He'd gotten lost for a moment in deciding if he should stay with her or turn in for the night.

"You're brave too. You have to be, to be here." She hadn't looked away from him, he realized. "And a lot of other things too."

He couldn't even come up with something else witty to say in response. The way she'd told him that was so genuine and sweet that his mind had gone blank. The silence was long.