They All Love You

part eighteen

Hermione tried to keep her eyes awake during the longest Prefect meeting she's felt she had attended. The Prefects were attempting to come up with a Halloween day event for the students, but couldn't decide collectively on one idea.

She also couldn't stop thinking about what Theo told her earlier in the library about Dean wanting to see her. She anxiously tapped her foot lightly on the ground, chewing on one of her fingernails subconsciously as she stared at Dean for the main duration of the meeting. Dean didn't meet her eyes once; not calming her down in the slightest.

"Alright, so it's finally settled. A party for the fifth through eighth years in the Room of Requirement, and a Halloween dance for the first through fourth years," Ginny announced, "Took us only a few hours," she muttered under her breath, huffing in frustration.

"Alright, meeting adjourned. We'll meet back again this Thursday to finalize everything, and we'll host the party this Saturday, on Halloween of course," Theo sighed as the year's prefects shuffled out of their meeting lounge.

Immediately, Hermione got up from her seat, eyes glued on Dean as she approached him by one of the sofas.

"Hi, Theo said you needed to talk to me?" Hermione asked sweetly, trying to hide her worry.

"Oh, right! Erm, just wanted to see where you were," Dean shrugged, trying to end the conversation.

Hermione sensed something was up, "Dean, there's something obviously bothering you, just tell me."

"Right, well, I'll just get this bit over with. Um, during the assignment and stuff, erm...me and Ginny got to talking and-"

"Oh God," Hermione choked, already knowing where this conversation was going.

Dean's eyes widened in realization of why Hermione was suddenly getting more emotional, "Oh! No, no, nothing happened between us, don't you worry. She's your best friend, give her some more credit."

Hermione let out a quick and shaky breath of relief, "So- what did you two discuss?"

"Well, it's not easy to explain to people but, erm, I just feel like a coward sometimes is all," Dean said sadly, looking at his lap.

Hermione gave his knee a squeeze, encouraging him to elaborate. "Well, when we started, you know-dating and stuff I really liked you. A ton, Hermione you should know that," Dean started, trying to go quick before she could jump to any conclusions. "But, I think back now and maybe the main reason I asked you out was to hide how I was-well, how I was actually feeling."

Hermione's brows furrowed, trying to make sense of this. This is what she was good at; combining logic and knowledge into making decisions but for some reason this was an unsolvable puzzle. She was also quite surprised with Dean's openness about his feelings, a word Harry and Ron tried to avoid her whole school life. It was apparently "too girly."

"So you liked someone else then? Who?" Hermione questioned, feeling a little bit irritated. "Is it Ginny? Cho?"

"Hermione..."

"No, Dean, I can take it from here. Don't know about you, but hearing the only reason someone dated you was to mask the girl he actually liked is quite irritating!" Hermione snapped at him.

"That's not the only reason, Hermione!" Dean groaned. "It's-"

"So there were multiple! How lovely to hear-"

Dean exhaled loudly, whispering 'alohamora' to the door's lock and standing up in frustration, "Because I don't like girls Hermione, that's why. I like boys, get it? Put your damn logic together Hermione I'm fucking gay. Is that what you excepted?" Dean shouted.