Holding On

Harry awoke with a bolt of fear. He didn't know how it had come to this, how his life flew so off course. Certainly Harry was used to surprises, every year of his life since he was 10 was a surprise. But now Harry was in his 6th year at Hogwarts and this surprise was far too incomprehensible even for him.

Two weeks earlier when Harry's life made sense, he walked down the grand staircase towards the great hall to eat breakfast. He found his best friends in the world Hermione and Ron who were seated in the middle of the long Gryffindor table fighting over something.

"Ron you promised," Harry heard Hermione squeal.

"I did not you wouldn't stop pestering me, I just said yes so you would stop. I don't even know what I said yes to!" Ron replied defensively stuffing a sausage into his mouth.

"What's going on?" Harry asked sitting down next to Hermione.

"I let Ron borrow the essay I wrote for potions..." Harry gasped with horror. "I know," Hermione continued seeing his face, "That is why I made him promise he wouldn't copy it and just use it as a guideline, but he copied it."

"No I didn't," Ron fought back stubbornly.

"RON, it's word for word," Hermione said getting angrier. "I'm not here to do your homework for you."

"Fine," Ron said tossing his essay at her, landing it on her plate and knocking food everywhere. "I'll go write it again." Ron stood up and left the Great Hall still fuming from the fight.

Hermione picked a piece of bacon off her robes and threw it on her plate with the scroll. She grabbed a muffin and turned to Harry, "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure," Harry said happily grabbing a muffin for himself and getting up from the table. He and Hermione walked out of the great hall and out into the bright sunlight. It was a warm October day and the air was full of the smell of the approaching fall. Harry and Hermione walked slowly in no particular direction, Hermione slightly leading.

Harry looked over at her and realized her mind was somewhere else. "Galleon for your thoughts," Harry said looking towards the lake where the sun was glittering brightly off of it.

"A Galleon?" Hermione asked looking up at him.

"Yeah, well it seems like you have a lot," he replied with a small smile looking back at her. She smiled slightly looking at the grass in front of her.

"It's nothing, really. I've just umm... been thinking about some stuff and uhh... well it's a little bit umm... confusing." Hermione stuttered difficultly. Harry looked at her with the biggest question on his face. Since when did Hermione Granger ever have a loss for words. And since when did she not answer a question with an answer that would get her "full marks".

"Well I think it's safe to say that you don't get that Galleon." Harry said jokingly. That's when something happened. Hermione looked at Harry, straight in the eyes. Her light brown eyes met his bright green eyes in a way that had never happened before. Harry didn't move he just stared back at her not wanting to blink, not wanting to break this connection, not wanting to move.

Hermione tried to look away but to her horror she couldn't. It wasn't the first time she looked at him that way, but this was the first time he looked back. She may have imagined it for just a moment but she thought that Harry was feeling what she was feeling for the first time. Neither of them spoke, neither of them dared to move, neither of them had any idea what was happening to them. They stayed there for what seemed like an eternity, staring into each other's eyes secretly questioning it and secretly loving it. Then off in a far distance they heard students bustling towards their classes. They both blinked and coughed and looked away ending whatever they just had. Then making some sort of discussion they made their way towards the greenhouses for Herbology where everything was returned to normal.

Harry sat at the Gryffindor table eating lunch and talking to Neville. After Herbology Harry had Divination without Ron who was probably still writing his potions essay. Suddenly Ron came running into the Great Hall heading straight for Harry with a look of panic spread over his face.

"Harry, mate you got to let me copy your essay," Ron stammered breathlessly.

"Don't do it Harry," Ron heard Hermione say as she joined the boys at the table, Ron gave her a dirty look, told her to bugger off and went back to pleading Harry.

"Sorry Ron, Hermione is right. You should have done the essay yourself, besides what would Snape do to us if we handed in the same essay?" Hermione smiled, she was glad that Harry wouldn't let Ron copy his essay. That's when she realized she was staring and she quickly turned around and engaged Ginny in an intense conversation about clothes and shoes.

Ron sat down and started chewing on a chicken leg. Everyone talked and laughed and ate and when it was time they headed towards the potions class. The sixth year Gryffindors and Slytherins spent the entire class watching Snape yell at Ron Weasley for not finishing his essay. The Slytherins seemed to enjoy it more as Snape continued to take points from Gryffindor. When potions ended they left the class to head outside for Care of magical creatures, the Gryffindors were slightly depressed at the amount of points that Snape had cost them. Ron still blamed Hermione for not letting him use the essay he wrote in the first place.

That night the Gryffindor common room was full but quiet. Everyone was mad that their lead in house points was not only lost to Slytherin but they had lost so many points that they were in third place. Ron, Harry, and Hermione sat in a corner quietly doing their homework.

Hermione was writing the new potions essay they were given that day, it wasn't until she realized Ron was trying to look at it that she noticed she wasn't writing the essay at all. She looked down at a page that was almost completely full of doodling. She quickly rolled up her scroll, made a small attempt to yell at Ron for copying and took off to sit and talk to Ginny. Hermione hoped secretly that Ron did not see what she had doodled on her scroll.

Ron was trying to write his homework for Transfiguration that was due the next day. With nothing coming out of his quill onto his paper he tried looking for Hermione's homework, but it was useless, she probably handed it in already. That's when he looked over onto the essay she was working on. He realized that Hermione was actually not doing her homework at all but doodling. The real shock came when he saw what she was doodling. He only saw it for an instant before she rolled it up and yelled at him, but he did see it and the damage was done. Ron looked in shock after Hermione as she went to go join Ginny then he rolled up his parchment and shoved his books in his bag and stormed up to his dormitory.

Harry sat in the secluded corner working intently on finishing his Astronomy homework. Suddenly Hermione was yelling at Ron and storming off and then Ron was storming off and leaving Harry alone. He shrugged his shoulders thinking it was nothing and went back to his homework. When he neared the end of his homework he heard Hermione laugh. He turned to look at her and Ginny locked in a deep discussion. That's when Harry noticed how Hermione's hair moved as she talked, how her face scrunched up as she laughed, and how she... Harry shook his head and turned back to his parchment, he never finished his homework.