Say You Love Me

{4}

Wednesday came no sooner than it ever did, and Hermione startled the boys when she gave Ron a hug as well as Harry when they arrived at her flat. The flat she and Ron had co-inhabited.

"You know, Draco keeps wondering why we don't invite him to these things, and I hope you both know he's starting to think you don't like him," Harry muttered as he shrugged her off, attempting to act like her kindness was normal.

"Thick bugger," Ron said through take-away he'd already piled into after being released from her otherwise surprising hug, a bag still in his hand that Hermione was attempting to put on the counter. "We like him just the same as anyone who was on the wrong side of the war."

"Ronald," she tried to scorn him, but her voice no longer had the same weight. "Draco is very nice, and we like him all the same as anyone on our own side. Tonight is just-"

Harry laughed, breaking into the takeaway as he said, "I tried to tell him. Couldn't get it through his thick skull."

"It's the hair," Ron said, finally putting down whatever he'd been chomping on. "I mean, it's got to be kept down by at least five spells, if not a whole bottle of sleek-easy."

They laughed in a chorus, and Hermione felt liberated like she had speaking with Luna on Sunday, or lunch earlier that day with Harry. This feeling was what she lived for now, the feeling that she was living in the moment as happily as possible.

"But really, mate, we like the ferret."

"We like Draco," Hermione added to Ron's snark, watching Harry light up at the idea.

"That's brilliant, actually, because I think I'm going to propose to him."

The room was more silent in that moment than it would be the entire rest of the evening, even after the boys left and she went to bed.

"Blimey-" Hermione remarked, but it was covered up by Ron's own expletive exclamation.

It was wholesome that Ron was so happy for Harry, even if Hermione had wanted this exact thing for the two of them but a few months ago. Not that she doubted he wouldn't be, but Ron was touch-and-go when Harry first started to date Draco. The pain of the betrayal was eased mostly because Ron knew that if there ever was to be a wedding, he would be best-man. Now, of course, they could all be considered friends.

Hermione was thrilled as well for the man she considered her best friend and went in for a bone-crushing hug.

Only, her heart clenched, because she wanted to be at the wedding, to be present and healthy for all of it, but the odds of that happening were slim if they waited any longer than a year or so. She was only getting sicker, as the months went on, more and more petals threatening to fall from her mouth at any moment. The constant tickle in her throat wasn't comfortable either. Maybe somehow she could convince them to marry sooner? If Draco accepted of course.

As they pulled away from the hug, she felt the tears come, and tried to hide them, wiping furiously at her eyes, but Harry noticed without missing a thing.

Her emotions were truly betraying her, creating some rather poor situations for her. This would probably be only one of many as well.

"Hermione?" He asked her in a panic, "Are you okay? Are you upset I'm asking him... or?"

"No!" She almost yelled, wiping more frantically at her eyes. "Don't get in a snit, Harry. Happy tears! Happy tears!"

She got away with the lie, and Harry grinned his foolish grin to make her feel better, taking her into another hug.

And she did feel better eventually, so they sat down at her flat's supper table, eating and talking merrily with empty containers piling up before them, Hermione surprised at the new ease that came with being around Ron.They inspected the ring that Harry had gotten Malfoy, saying the one he found in his vault was far too girly, and also admitting that he wasn't exactly thinking about proposing, he had a plan all laid out already.

Hermione tried to quell her upset stomach. She'd already a petal or two that morning, and usually her chest wasn't as active at night, so she hoped that nothing had turned even worse. Then again, the thoughts that were running around in her mind were enough to make anyone queasy.

"Exploding snaps?"

"How old are we?" Hermione moaned over the table, looking at them with extreme exhaustion.

"Pub then?"

"On a Wednesday? I'd rather play exploding snaps," she said, giving in to the boy's antics. What would her life be without their complete and utter normalcy that settled her aching insides, even for a moment. Idiocy was more appropriate than normalcy, but their idiocy was normal.

"I'll get the cards," Ron said, knowing exactly where her set was stashed away from the olden days... but he only knew because he'd practically lived there a few months prior.

Harry looked over at her in a dead pan, "Are you really okay with me wanting to marry Draco? I know the muggles aren't entirely-"

"Harry," she said fiercely, grabbing his hand with her own shaking one. "Of course I am! You're so happy, it's almost unreal. Even Luna said there's chemistry between you two. Who am I to deny that?"

Harry blushed.

"I'm glad. What about you, though, anyone you maybe have been talking to since Ron? You seem to be hanging out with Luna a lot since you saw her for that appointment with the..." he gestured innocently towards her entire self, then whispered, "petal."

Hermione startled. "I don't-"

"I know," he interrupted smugly, having written off the petal-incident himself since she explained that very morning that it was just a weird charm that would ware off eventually. No, her was more focused on the fact that she should be moving on with her life. "I just wanted to see that look on your face."

"Harry James Potter," she scolded, "I'm sorry I don't swing both ways like you do."

"I never said it was bad," he retorted, hands in the air, his focus shifting to a returning Ron. Harry attempted to be careful between the two, but tonight had really smooth things over between them all.

Ron slapped the cards on the table, proud of himself.

"Who's ready to lose?"

"Not tonight, boys," Hermione determined, pulling out her wand from it's hiding place, a defiant smirk on her face. She wasn't going down without a fight, not in this, and not in her short time left on the planet.

The rest of the night went by fairly well. Hermione couldn't have asked for better friends, and while guilt tugged at the fact that she wasn't telling either of them about her disease fully, it didn't damper her ability to enjoy the time she had with them.

Their ignorance was bliss to everyone involved. Especially considering the fact that she couldn't tell Ron and guilt him into loving her, though she doubted it would even work anyways, and neither would drugging him forever with a love potion. Because she even had the bloody cursed flowers, it meant he didn't love her, and what a terrible thing, too. Hermione felt her heart tug for him, even now, as they sat across the table from one-another where they used to eat so many evening meals and breakfast's where he had slowly begun to favor her own coffee.

She had to physically shake the thoughts away and attempt to grieve the relationship properly.

Severus was also someone who she felt deserved to remain in blissful ignorance. Her excitement from the evening bled into her anticipation for the next day, and Hermione found herself overjoyed to see Severus Snape once again, finally having something less pressuring to look forward to. Something about him compelled her. He was a different breed of wizard entirely, and the floo address was fresh in her mind for lunch the next day, not being able to dress for bed fast enough to have the hour of anticipation come about.

Hermione hadn't cared to rush days away since her diagnosis, but it was only one day, one she'd already filled with friends and love (something she still couldn't fathom living without), and the next one would be just as good if not better. Hermione could let a day pass for the sake of getting another moment in which the time didn't matter at all.