What's Best For Her

Wonderful Hopes

Dear Harry,
For the last month, all I've wanted to do is write to you...

Hermione crumpled up her letter and vanished it into the air. No amount of words or apologies seemed possible to convey everything she felt for Harry and the regret she carried with her. She was content to ignore it and hope by some miracle they'd see each other again but Ginny wouldn't let up on her, telling her that miracles only happen when one deserves them.

So it was with that in mind that Hermione spent the last month, or twenty nine days, since that fateful Hogsmeade meeting trying to write to him. She had zero success with her writing for the first time in her life. That was what Harry was capable of doing to her, he was capable of making her forget everything she knew until there was only him left. It scared and fascinated her at the same time.

Valentine's Day was coming up but Hermione couldn't find it in herself to even want to step foot into Hogsmeade. She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of seeing happy couples doing typical couple things in the beautifully shimmering snow white streets of the village. It would only remind her of something she couldn't have and it would force her to imagine herself doing those things with Harry.

Miserably, Hermione gave up on writing any more letters to Harry and promptly decided to leave the common room to retreat into her dormitory for the night. It was quite late and all the other girls were asleep—hopefully Ginny was too—so she could sneak into her bed without having them bombard her with questions and teases about Harry.

Alas, it was not to be as Hermione stepped into the room to find Lavender, Parvati, and Ginny all waiting for her wearing equal evil grins while the redhead held an unopened letter in her hands. The frustrated girl blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and resigned herself to dealing with the pack of hyenas that were the girls.

"Oohhhh, Hermi, guess what we have here?" Ginny said in a sing-song voice.

Lavender and Parvati giggled while they made a show of swooning. Hermione facepalmed at their antics but made her way over to them to take the letter. She wasn't expecting anyone to write to her so she didn't know who the letter was from. It couldn't be Harry, he was avoiding her after what she did. Still, she hoped it was.

"Who's this from?" The older witch asked the giggling group.

"Well obviously we don't know, we didn't read it," Parvati pouted, "what do you take us for Hermi?"

Shaking her head at Lavender and Parvati, Hermione noticed the knowing look Ginny was wearing. Her hopes that the letter was from Harry were starting to rise by the second as a result of it. She gently tore the letter open to reveal its contents to her eyes.

Dearest Hermione,

I realize that I didn't give you much of a chance to talk about why you wanted to leave and that I *may* have overreacted a lot. The truth is that the news hit me off guard and I didn't expect it to come from you of all people. I want to apologize for storming off on you and not giving you a chance to explain yourself. I was hoping, since this weekend is another Hogsmeade weekend, that you would meet up with me again so we can talk.

Love you always,

Harry

The widest of smiles shone on Hermione's face before three blissful gasps erupted from the girls who were apparently reading over her shoulder. She huffed at them. "You know it's rude to read over someone's shoulder, right?" She asked them, though still smiling.

"We couldn't resist," the girls said in unison. All of them beamed at her and hurriedly dragged her to her bed. "Do you know what this means?"

"He wants me to meet up with him at Hogsmeade?" Hermione sarcastically answered with a question of her own.

"Yes, silly, but not only that, he wants to meet up with you on Valentine's Day weekend," Lavender told her.

"It's so romantic," Parvati bemoaned.

"Indeed," Ginny added, surprising Hermione.

"Ginevra!," scolded Hermione.

"Oh come on, love, there have been two other Hogsmeade weekends in the past month, why hasn't he asked you to them? Why now?" Ginny shot back with a smirk while Lavender and Parvati swooned.

Hermione's mouth snapped shut at that. The redhead was right, Harry could have easily asked her to any of the past weekends after the one they met up in. Still, he could have just been working through his feelings during that time. Or he was waiting for the right moment to tell her that he loved her and didn't want her to leave. She wouldn't know for certain until she wrote him back and accepted his invitation.

"He even said 'love you always'," Parvati noted as she pointed out the words in the letter to the other two girls.

"Look, he called her 'dearest Hermione'," Lavender joined in, gesturing to the words at the top of the letter.

The bushy haired girl groaned at them but couldn't help but think that Harry's words were his way of expressing his feelings for her. She knew he wasn't particularly the best at saying how he felt and more often spoke through his actions. Hermione dared to hope that his words in the letter were a result of that.

"Alright you three, off to bed," Hermione ordered in her signature bossy tone. She shuffled them off her own bed and rounded them up like sheep as they protested.

"Alright, mother hen, we're going," Ginny quipped, causing Hermione to swat her arm.

"We're so happy you chose to decline being head girl," Lavender sarcastically added.

"And you should be, imagine the detentions you'd get when I would catch you and Seamus in a broom closet."

Lavender had the decency to blush at Hermione's words and huffed when Parvati tried to contain her own snort of laughter. "Oh yeah? She'd catch you and Dean in the prefect's bathroom too." The blonde haired girl pointed to her best friend.

"She would not," Parvati noticed Hermione's disapproving look, "not that I've been in there since, you know? I'm not a prefect."

Ginny watched the whole thing amusedly as she tucked herself in for the night. Hermione eyed the remaining two girls disapprovingly before settling in for the night. When the lights flickered off and cast the room into darkness, Hermione spoke again. "Good night, girls," she called.

"Night, mummy," both Lavender and Parvati joked in return.

"Honestly," Hermione said but the girls knew she was smiling even in the darkness.

When the girls fell asleep, Hermione remained awake with thoughts of Harry. The last twenty nine days were utterly miserable for her but all of it was forgotten from the minute she read his letter. She couldn't wait to see him again and hopefully, finally, mend their relationship.

Hermione remembered having told Ginny that she was ready to give up on ever being with Harry after the debacle that was their first meet up but now she had a second chance with him. The offer to study in the States was still on the table and she was offered to sit for the interview during Easter break but she hoped that she wouldn't have to. While she could find joy in studying advanced ancient healing, it wouldn't be nearly as joyful as spending the rest of her life with Harry.

Even so, Hermione still felt guilty about hurting him the way she did with her words when they last saw each other. She foolishly thought what was best for her was to be away from him and had told him that load of tripe. She could have smacked herself in the face a million times for that royal muck up but it didn't matter now. At least she hoped it wouldn't matter when she finally told him how she felt.

A minuscule segment of her mind reminded her that the jury was still out on that statement, however. Hermione didn't know for certain how Harry felt for her just yet and, so, she couldn't go about assuming that he felt the same. He could just as easily reject her—it killed her to think about this—and make her declaration true.

Still, from his words in the letter and the timing of it, the brown eyed witch could feel more than a sense of belief that he felt the same for her. It was Valentine's Day weekend after all, he had to be planning something. With that last thought, Hermione fell asleep with the beginnings of a smile on her face.