A Comedy of Errors - The Error of Errors
"Hermione! Hermione! Stop!" Harry continued to shout as he ran after Hermione.
Hermione was running full speed. She could feel tears sitting on the verge of her eyelids. She thought she would never live to see the day Harry cheating on her and certainly not with Luna Lovegood, the Looney. Hermione ran blindly, not even knowing where she was heading.
"I know a kiss when I see a kiss. There's no need for any further explanation!" yelled Hermione angrily as she attempted to pull more distance between Harry and herself.
Hermione was fast, but being the best Quidditch player of Hogwarts did Harry some advantage. Although Harry also needed to break into a run, he was getting closer to Hermione every step he took.
"Stop! Hermione!" Harry caught up with Hermione at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He reached out and grabbed Hermione's shoulder tightly. "Hermione, it wasn't as it seemed!"
Tears finally escaped Hermione's eyes, despite of the effort she had tried to stop them from dripping. Forcefully, she struggled in Harry's grasp. "Get your hands off me!" screamed Hermione. "I don't want your filthy hands touching me! Who knows how many other girls you have lain your dirty paws on?"
Harry couldn't believe it. Here is Hermione, doing exactly what Cho had done some years ago. "Hermione...."
"Oh, don't 'Hermione' me!" Hermione pushed Harry hard in frustration, but Harry's grip was too hard to be blushed away.
Harry turned Hermione around facing him with all the strength he could master. "Hermione listen to me."
Hermione couldn't resist Harry's plead and looked into the depth of Harry's clear emerald eyes. As soon as her eyes met Harry's, she knew her battle was lost; she had been completely melted. Hermione struggled once more with considerably less force.
"Hermione, it was just an accident," whispered Harry into her ear. "I...."
"Ah... ah... ah...," someone's pant rang in Harry and Hermione's ears from the Forest and stopped Harry.
An identical horrified look spread over both Harry and Hermione's faces. They knew that they must be walking on some people doing "things". Little did they know, they hadn't seen, or in this case heard, the worst.
A girl's pants came piercing through Harry and Hermione's eardrums. "Draco! Oh, Draco!"
Harry's horrified expression immediately switched to one of shock. "Ginny?"
The reality must have just hit Hermione then. "Oh my God! I saw Ginny running after Malfoy into the Forbidden Forest a while ago. This... this...."
"RON!!!!" screamed Harry and Hermione at the same time as they dashed off together towards the lake, where Ron and Luna were currently meeting.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ron had just met up with Luna for a few seconds before he heard Harry and Hermione screaming for him. He had barely started his whole speech before two very distracted Harry and Hermione appeared before him.
Ron was very annoyed. How dare they interrupt his moment of intimacy with the girl of his dream. What's worst, they had stopped him from making his well written speech especially written for Luna for the second time (doing it for Hermione was the first, though no one interrupted him technically). If he had to do this and be interrupted one more time, he would surely forget his beautiful speech.
"Ron... Ginny... Malfoy... Forbidden... Forest... doing... stuff," panted Harry as he tried to explain the situation to Ron.
Upon hearing the word "Ginny" and "Malfoy" being put together, Ron's face was burning with anger. "Malfoy! I am going to get you this time! I'll tell you what you'll get for touching my baby sister!" Without giving Harry, Hermione and Luna a second thought, Ron stormed off to the Forbidden Forest.
Harry and Hermione ran after Ron. They seemed to have forgotten the fact that they were having a fight or the Harry had a broomstick in his hand. They panted and puffed as they ran on.
Luna tagged behind dreamily. She, however, didn't seemed to mind that Ron's confession towards her had been interrupted and that they were not very likely to get back to it until quite a while later.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When Harry and Hermione found Ron, he was shouting angrily at Draco and Ginny, who were hugging each other on the ground of the Forbidden Forest. The place they were sitting at was dangerously close to a large, muddy swamp.
".... I'm warning you, Malfoy! Touch my baby sister again and I will peel your skin off your muscle! Ginny, how dare you betray your family? How could you sink so low as to fall in love with this... this... piece of rubbish? What else have you done tonight apart from kissing? Better tell me right now, before I have to force Veritaserum down your throat!"
Ginny protested loudly. "I'm not your baby sister! And don't you dare harming Draco! I'll... I'll... fight you if I have to!"
"Weasel, I told you we've only kissed. Why don't you bloody believe me?" Malfoy yelled back at Ron. "I love Ginny with my whole heart. What other proves do you need? I love her!"
Ron was even louder than Malfoy. "Because I too bloody know that you don't or can't lover her! You are just a slimy git with no heart. You have no love, only lust! I will not tolerate with my sister being tortured like this!"
"Ron...," Harry and Hermione said in unison as they pulled Ron's arms back, trying to stop him advancing towards Malfoy.
Draco stood from the ground and faced Ron. His cold gray eyes and Ron's hot blue ones had a brief but intense staring competition. "What exactly do you want?"
"I want to show you that consequence of you touching my innocent Ginny," growled Ron and he took a step closer to Malfoy, his fists slightly raised.
Malfoy's famous lopsided mocking grin hung dangerous on his cheeks as he chuckled, "Oh really?"
"Ka-pow! Squish!" Ron landed in the muddy swamp in a thud, bringing poor Harry and Hermione with him.
Malfoy's evil grin widened as he peered down at the muddy trio, "This is a lesson for you that you should never mess with a Malfoy. And look, Weasel, what have you gotten your Potty and Mudblood friends into."
Suddenly, Malfoy's eyes widened in disbelief and before anyone knew what happened, Malfoy landed head first into the swamp.
"I hope this taught you a lesson of messing with Ronald," Luna said in her dreamy voice. "At least Ronald wasn't pushed into the mud by a skinny girl."
A terrible mud fight began between Malfoy and the trio in the swamp. Draco scooped up a large quantity of mud and dunk it over Hermione's head ("Take that! MUDBLOOD!") but was immediately pushed down and buried by mud by Harry ("Oh no, you don't mess with my girl!"). Ron's mouth was stuffed with a mouthful of mud accidentally by Hermione, who thought he was Malfoy ("Who's side are you on?"). Harry's green dress robe was tore into bits in struggle ("Hey! It's my best robe!").
Seeing that Draco was fighting three people at a time, Ginny hurriedly joined the fight to aid Draco. Only Luna remained standing by the swamp, eyeing the five mud people with amusement.
The mud battle was never ending. The five people in the mud were completely covered in mud from head to toe. After what seemed to be a few hour, Ron pulled himself from the ball of mud fight and began to laugh. At the sound of his laughter, the other four also stopped.
"Hahaha! This is the most enjoyable and funny fight I have gotten in my entire seven years in Hogwarts!" Ron was laughing so hard that tears were forming from his totally mud-covered eyes.
The other four mud people sat in the mud for a while longer, stunned. Then they all burst out laughing at the same time.
"It was so stupid!" laughed Hermione as she glanced around. All of them had been in their best robes, all dressed up for the date. Harry's best green robe was shredded into pieces of fabrics. Draco's coal black robe was ripped in half. Ron's dark blue robe was now brown and would probably remain brown for the rest of its days. Ginny's brown satin robe was a pitiful sight to see. Hermione's precious blue silk robe was torn. Even Luna's golden robe was stained by bits of brown spots.
Helping each other to their feet, the six paired of nicely once again. Even Ron smiled and let Ginny left with Draco.
Harry took hold of Hermione's muddy hands along with his now very muddy Firebolt and was beginning to lead her back to the Quidditch pitch when he could feel her stiffen suddenly.
"What's the matter?" asked Harry with concern. He was hoping against hope that Hermione would have forgotten their little quarrel after the excitement. However, Hermione's next words confirmed Harry's worst fear.
Hermione stopped in the middle of the Forest and stomped angrily. "Harry James Potter! If you think that the mud fight would save you from your explanations... ah!"
Harry felt the ground sinking beneath him. Instinctively, Harry pulled Hermione against his chest and hung tightly on to his Firebolt as they fell.
Thud! Harry and Hermione landed hard in a deep pit. As Hermione was on top of Harry at the time, she was not really hurt. Swiftly, she moved off Harry's body. Now they were not only covered in mud, they were also covered in soot.
"Look what you've gotten me into!" Hermione complained loudly. "Before we start to think about getting out of here, you, Harry James Potter, had better explain everything!" Hermione sat cross-legged by the still dizzy Harry. Her lips paused in a pout, her arms crossed in front of her chest, waiting for her explanation.
Harry looked up at the mud-covered pouting Hermione. Oh my God! She's so cute that I could kiss her right now for hours without breaks, no problems!
Slowly, still rubbing his painful back, Harry began to explain.