Harry Potter. Hermione X Male Reader Story

Temptation and Negotiation

(Y/N)'s POV

"I feel like a squirrel, can't we nick some stuff from a corner shop or something?" I moaned as we foraged for food in the middle of nowhere in the woods. "Well, if you can find one, be my guest!" Hermione snapped back.

Yep, she was still mad at me for some reason. How terrible of me, reuniting her with one of her best friends, I should be locked up. I think she was just stressed about his return, the tension that Ron had brought with him was driving me insane.

I didn't expect her to change her mind overnight, and was therefore unsurprised that she communicated with Ron mainly through dirty looks and pointed silences the next morning. But that wasn't even the worst bit.

Ron responded by maintaining an unnaturally sombre demeanour in her presence as an outward sign of continuing remorse. I felt like I was at a wake or something every time I entered the tent from my watches.

It's even worse when Harry goes on watch leaving the three of us together, Ron didn't know how to act, I felt weird around him if I was with Hermione and she was still grumpy towards both of us. Harry had to act as a sort of mediator whenever he could.

A few days after Ron's return, I was offered an olive branch of sorts. Hermione curled up beside me as I scanned the darkness of the forest of Dean. "Mind if I join you?" she asked coyly, "Those are always some of my favourite words to hear from you" I said back as she sat down.

"Have you been sleeping better?" she made small talk, clearly prepping for the rest of the conversation. "Yeah, in a way." She cocked an eyebrow up, "What does that mean?"

"Well, since the venom has made its way out of my system and with the Horcrux gone I'm not having nightmares anymore exactly" "Exactly?" I sighed, I kind of wanted to take this to the grave, but it was too late now.

"I keep having dreams, not bad ones, just ones that make me doubt all of this a little bit, make me want to give it all up." "What? Why!" she whispered as to not wake the others. "It's hard to explain. It sounds all mushy and gross."

"Well, colour me intrigued." I sighed, recalling the dream I had whenever I closed my eyes. "Fine, but you can't laugh" she let out breath and said, "Me? Never." With a little smirk I sighed again and retold my dream.

"It doesn't really make sense at the beginning, it's all just running, but not from anything bad really. It's nothing dangerous we are running from, it's just something we shouldn't do."

"You see, you and me, we sneak out while the others are asleep, we dissaparate away, left them to find the Horcruxes by themselves, and they must have done it, because..." I was nervous about this part "Because?" she said gently, looking invested.

"We bought a house, lived together, had a family, and just, forget about all of this, a cliché and a half right?" I let out a shallow chuckle. "How is that a bad dream?" she nudged me, "It sounds wonderful" I nodded, "That's why it's a bad dream."

"This isn't the locket, this is me, wanting to run away from my problems, just like I always want to. I always want to run when I shouldn't run and fight when I shouldn't fight" as much as it pained me to say all of this, it was good to get off my chest.

She didn't say anything, so I went on, "I should have run from the graveyard, but I convinced myself to stay back and fight, I should have fought at the Department of Mysteries but I ran after Dumbledore, I should have run from Yaxley, but instead...instead...I killed him."

"Sometimes I worry I'm just like them Hermione, the Death Eaters, I can't find a way to get someone out of my way so the first thing I think to do is kill them. Just like that."