Disclaimer: All right, the story's mine, no one else's. And Harry Potter is © J.K. Rowling and other related companies.
Author's Note: This is a little on the confusing side - oh, well. Try not to get lost while you're reading it ;) As for the story behind this: I wrote it in one hour yesterday - I was inspired by an essay, so I wrote this. Basically "he" is Harry, "she" is Hermione, and you decide which one Ron is :P
When she had realized, she did not know, but she knew that she had discovered it at the most unlikely of times.
Autumn was quickly settling in that October. Breezy, cool, windy days were not uncommon and often times the students had to wear overcoats and gloves just to get through the day. She and her best friends wore warm scarves, gloves and a thick coat - that was enough for the three of them.
A regular day of classes, that was when. That was the only thing that she remembered about her sudden, very unexpected realization.
Never had she expected that fateful cool October day that she would come to a startling revelation - and that it would be about one of her best friends, at that. A mix of confused, jumbled up thoughts filled her mind - a myriad of emotions surged through her.
Nevertheless, she just put on an unruffled appearance and continued on with her work as usual (which was caring after zemeras).
As she worked, a flow of thoughts was winding its way, like a tapestry, in her mind. They weren't running a smooth path though: on the contrary, it was a jagged, rocky, jumbled pile of ponderings, musings, thoughts - whatever you wanted to call them - running through her mind. Much like a billboard, she later reflected. Or a siren - one of the two. A billboard, an advertisement that broadcasted her thoughts, feelings - and most importantly, right now anyway, her unexpected, causing her handful of small stones to drop and scatter every countless way onto the floor revelation. Of course, as expected, a few jaws dropped in amazement and disbelief (she couldn't decide which one of the two; augh, why was she so indecisive today?) that the know-it-all, the bookworm of the school, the "insufferable showoff" had finally messed up on something. The "perfect girl who had it all together" was in fact, falling apart, like a thread slowly unraveling from a spool.
She couldn't believe this. Letting something as startling and that could possibly change her life forever like this interfere with her studies (and not to mention her schoolwork overall) was simply unthinkable.
That's it, she resolved. I'm not going to think about it - or him.
After classes had ended for the day, she quickly abandoned her friends and dashed off to the girls' dormitories so that she'd get a grip on herself before it was too late.
Several minutes later she found herself sitting in the common room near the fireplace, Magical Theories That Were Never Proven - Until Now tucked neatly beside her, and watching intently at the rather intense chess game that her two best friends were currently engrossed and battling furiously in. Moves were made and pieces were taken swiftly off the board; and every time the latter was done, he groaned in protest.
She smiled to herself, a soft wisp of a smile, at this and started to busy herself in reading her book.
A draw in the game was declared five minutes before dinner, and closing her book rather reluctantly, she followed the two of them (who were complaining about the Potion Master's class that had taken place earlier that day) down to dinner, firmly resolving herself to not let him - or anything that he did - faze her.
After four and a half courses had been monstrously devoured by more than half of the student population (including the ever so tactful two, she thought, rolling her eyes), the three of them set off towards the tower.
It was during this time that she reached a conclusion - walking back to the tower while quietly reflecting - which she decided, was the ultimate step in taking to stop this sudden madness of hers. She shook her head and sighed.
And then she made the mistakable move of glancing over to her right.
And instantly found herself facing, head on, the undeniable truth.
She could no longer deny it, nor could she ignore it - it was there, and evidently it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Sod the conclusion.
It was time to face it. It had already made its presence known to her - now the only thing that she had to do was to accept it. Sounds easy, no? But it was the hardest thing that she ever had to do - especially when it concerned her feelings for one of her best friends and coming to terms with them. It was time for her to deal with it.
She turned then and found herself, much to her surprise, at the entrance. This was driving her extremely up the wall, she decided. Either accept it, or not.
Muttering "griffin's claw" under her breath, the painting let the three of them in. It swiftly closed once they had made it to their usual spots by the fireplace.
She picked up her book, opened to where she had left off, and began to read. Vaguely she heard near her the sounds of joyful laughter (his) and protests (the ever so tactful one). A prod here and there, and smirks abound.
Her eyes stopped moving across the page and for a moment rested on a line. Brown irises widened.
Closing the book then and placing it on the carpet near her feet, she leaned back luxuriously and regarded her situation with newly opened eyes.
Well, she couldn't deny it anymore - that was a fact.
Was she going to accept it? Yes. Besides having no other reasonable choice, and not wanting this to be hanging over her head constantly, she knew better than to deny the truth - especially to herself. She couldn't lie to herself, she knew - lying to yourself was worse than lying to your mum and dad. Denying the truth that lay right in front of your eyes was even worse.
Was she going to deny the undeniable? No. It would be of no use, anyway. Hiding her feelings would only cause trouble - trouble that she didn't want to cause to arise - with her friendship with her two best friends.
And in all honesty, she acknowledged the truth, she faced it head on, and she accepted it. That was just the way that it was. You couldn't control your feelings, no matter how much you wanted to.
In the end, she decided that fateful day in October, when she had discovered - no, realized - the earth-shattering truth that had been right in front of her all along, it was a fact in itself.
It was just simply a fact in itself.