At the Beginning With You [Harmione]

10. Everything's Going to Change Now, Isn't It?

Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

- 'At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia

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"I don't know why, but I just felt—guilty—for what happened. I know you're not dating each other anymore, but Ginny was my friend before—I guess it was sixth year when we started to fall apart as friends. And for years I listened to her talk about how much she liked you, and it was just like one of those things: you don't date/kiss the guy that your friend likes."

"But she didn't know that the kiss had happened."

"I know that, but I knew."

"And it wasn't your fault, it was mine. Call it a "caught up in the moment" thing." Hermione smiled halfheartedly.

"Well, we'll just have to make sure and not get "caught up in the moment" again," she said in an unconvincing tone, like she didn't really like what she was saying.

"Right," Harry said, in that same unconvincing tone.

"Well, I should probably go back to my flat; I should go over my lesson plans for tomorrow." Harry nodded, sort of staring into space. He didn't even notice that Hermione had gotten up to leave until he heard the door click shut. He was completely lost in his thoughts. He could understand why Hermione felt guilty about the kiss; he had felt guilty about it too, only he felt it was almost like a betrayal of Ron. He made a face as the thought crossed his mind about the unspoken rule that some people abide by that you don't date/kiss your best friend's ex-girlfriend. The more he thought about it, the more he found that rule absolutely ridiculous. Not that he wanted to date Hermione, but he shouldn't feel guilty about that kiss, it was purely innocent and was what he had said, a "caught up in the moment" thing. But then, he wasn't sure he totally agreed with what Hermione had said about not letting themselves get "caught up the moment" again. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to stay away from those situations, because even though Hermione was one of his best friends, and most likely always stay that way, a small feather light kiss with her was about ten times more passionate than any kind of kiss he had ever shared with Ginny. He could lie to himself and anybody else till he was blue in the face, but in the end, the fireworks were there, and he couldn't deny it. He looked over at Teddy's crib when he heard the baby moving around after waking up from his "power nap", as Hermione called it. Harry shook his head at his godson, who smiled when he saw his godfather.

"I'm in trouble, Teddy. You know? I'm heading in a direction I'm not sure I wanna go." Teddy laughed and clapped his hands, as though applauding the fact that Harry had just admitted that. Harry smiled at the baby.

"You're a silly little guy, you know that?" Teddy clapped again.

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Hermione took a seat at her desk and put her elbows on the desk and massaged her temples. Why was this bothering so much? She put a stop to it, things like the kiss wouldn't happen anymore. It was the right thing to do. Or was it? Harry was her best friend, but, a kiss with Harry was better than any kiss with Ron. She sighed. She did not want to be thinking about things like that again. She had spent six years burying those thoughts and feelings, and was not ready for them to surface again. She already knew they were starting to emerge again, especially after she broke up with Ron. Folding her arms on the desk, she put her head down on them and sighed again. Why were things so complicated?