recap of the end of chapter six..
~*~
"What was that you said? Was it 'I'm sorry for pushing you in the water, Harry?'" he teased while continuing his assault on her waist.
"I…" she gasped for more air, "I'm soo…soor..." she could speak she was laughing to much.
"What was that?" he smiled as he leaned in close again and held his fingers at bay against her soft flesh.
"I'm…sorry," she managed as her laughter quickly subsided and her desire for him returned.
"That's better," he smiled broadly, his husky voice returning as he began leaning closer again.
'This is it!' Hermione mind screamed as she let her eyelids flutter shut. Time and space seemed to slow as he neared her. It was the perfect moment.
~*~
Chapter Seven
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Loud, high-pitched screams suddenly filled the air, followed by the sound of stampeding feet.
Harry jerked his head back and both their eyes flew wide open, growing immensely in size. Harry glanced at Hermione below and surveyed their current position. They were both scantily clad. Especially with him fully on top of her, it didn't look good for the both of them.
The yells were getting louder; it was coming from the trail to the lake. Quickly, Harry rolled off Hermione and they both scrambled to their feet, brushing the grass off of themselves. Hermione glanced at her arm and quickly pulled the strap of her bikini top, which had fallen haphazardly, back up on her shoulder. Just as they did, a stampede of kids and counselors came up from the lake and continued up toward the cabins.
Hermione looked at Harry for a brief moment. He was staring at her breathlessly, wondering himself what had just almost happened. Before she could say anything, Meegan ran up to her.
"Hermione, I brought your towel," she handed it to her. She glanced at Hermione and then at Harry, noticing they were both breathing quite heavily. "Have a good run?" she giggled before grabbing Hermione's wrist. "Sorry to rescue you from Harry's torture," she gave them an evil smile, "but we need to get back to the cabin. I don't want to leave Allison alone with all the girls. Bye Harry!" she called as she drug Hermione away.
"Bye Harry." Hermione said quickly, looking over her shoulder as she was pulled away from him. She kept her head focused on him until she was lost in the crowd.
Harry stood there and sighed, 'Potter, you imbecile! What were you thinking! She's going to figure out you like her if you keep carrying on like this. Who knows what she'll do if she finds out! She could stop talking to you, you git! Or worse, beat you to a pulp for considering such an absurd thing!'
Ron stopped in the crowd, noticing Harry pacing back and forth alone in the field. He was waving his hands around and muttering to himself. Ron gave him a funny look as he approached.
"Oy, Harry. What's it this time?" he handed Harry his towel as he stopped pacing and gave Ron an embarrassed smile.
"I was chasing Hermione," he said quietly as he accepted the towel from Ron.
"And...?" Ron asked as the two slowly began walking toward the tail end of the campers leaving the trail.
"I think I almost kissed her," he looked at Ron for an answer. The last few campers had gone up the trail and it was just Harry and Ron walking up it now.
"You think?" Ron said as he gave a grimacing face and tried to wave some dust out of his face that had risen off the trail due to the running campers who'd just gone through.
"I was chasing her and then I caught her over there in the field," he stopped to coughed a bit as Ron waved dust into his face. He gave him a nasty look.
"Sorry, go on then," Ron shrugged with a small smile of apology.
"Like I was saying, I tackled her and began tickling her. Nothing we wouldn't have normally done. But then I noticed how close I was to her. Did you see what she was wearing?! And there I was, lying on top of her. I just started leaning toward her. It was like I didn't have a choice. As if there were magnets inside each of our heads and the pull was too strong for me to avoid it," Harry was looking at his feet, kicking dirt as they stopped outside their cabin.
"And?!!?!?!" Ron was on edge. He needed to know the end of the story.
"And then the campers came up from the lake and we got up. Meegan came over and fetched Hermione, and then you came," he shrugged. A disappointed look crossed his face again.
"Did Meegan look alright?" Ron grinned suddenly.
"Shut up!" Harry laughed, punching him in the arm as he passed by him and entered the cabin. Ron smiled with a dreamy smile as he pictured Meegan in the skimpiest bikini he could cook up in his mind. Which actually covered a lot since Ron was too embarrassed at the thought to conjure up anything better.
~*~
"Hermione!!!!!!!" Meegan squealed, tugging on her wrist and pulling her away from their cabin and around back behind it. "Well?"
"Well what?" she blushed, looking at her feet.
"Didn't I tell you he fancied you!" she smiled, releasing Hermione's wrist and clasping her hands together excitedly.
"He does not. Really Meegan. All he did was chase me. I started it. It's always been like this. Harry, Ron, and I constantly play nasty tricks on one another and someone always retaliates. Harry just happened to catch me this time and subject me to some tickling. Like I told you, nothing we don't do all the time," she turned away. A slight look of hurt filled her eyes as she realized she was right. Harry wasn't going to kiss her; he was simply teasing her as always. 'You're going insane, Granger! Making yourself think Harry Potter would fancy the likes of you! You're mad with infatuation!'
"Hermione, are you alright?" Meegan gave her a curious look as a strange scowl crossed Hermione's face while she internally chastised herself.
"Oh, of course," she smiled, "Come on then. You said it yourself. We shouldn't be leaving Allison alone." With that, Hermione turned on her heel and headed off promptly into their cabin.
~*~
The loud echoes of children's laughter bounced off the walls of the lodge. Any meal there was usually very loud since it took a lot to get so many children to gather in one place and not cause a ruckus.
Hermione looked down at her plate of potato salad and poked it with her fork. It barely looked edible and she didn't want to test out her theory that it wasn't. She'd been in a rather downtrodden mood since they'd gone to the lake that afternoon. Glancing up from her uneaten plate of food, she looked across the room to Harry's table. He was standing on the bench with straws poking out of his nose. The boys around him were applauding loudly with hollers of encouragement.
"Ugh," Hermione scowled, turning away from him and rolling her eyes. 'He's so immature. Obviously he's not thinking about earlier because there is nothing to think about! Point proven why you need to get over this stupid infatuation!'
"What's with Hermione?" Allison leaned in next to Meegan and whispered into her ear. They were seated on the adjacent corner to Hermione and had been watching her poke at her food the entire meal.
"She's in a bit of a state over Harry again," Meegan explained as they watched her look over toward Harry, then turn away in disgust.
"She's got it bad," Allison noted.
"I think we need to intervene a bit," Meegan turned to face Allison while she talked to her. A wicked smile was crossing her face.
"What do you have in mind?" Allison grinned as Meegan leaned in, cupped her hand around her cousin's ear and began whispering her plan.
"You think it'll work," Allison smiled excitedly.
"Of course, I am near positive her sentiments are fully reciprocated," Meegan smiled turning back to her dinner. Throughout the rest of the meal, she noticed Hermione stealing glances at Harry more frequently. Though she denied it, Meegan knew Hermione was head over heels for Harry. They were going to get together, even if it took her all summer long.
~*~
After dinner and some cabin time waiting for it to get dark, the entire camp had gathered on the wooden benches surrounding the campfire pit. Meegan and Allison were seated on one side of their campers, and Hermione was seated on the other side. In front of them the camp staff tended to the roaring fire.
Some of the cabins had yet to arrive. While they were all waiting for them, they sang camp song led by Wendy, the Arts and Crafts Director. Currently, they were doing a round robin medley of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
Meegan noticed Ron and Harry leading their group up to the fire as she sang. She smiled to herself, then leaned to Allison next to her and whispered, "Time to start phase one of our plan."
"Ron! Oh, Ron! Come sit over here by me!" she called over the voices as he and Harry neared with their group.
Ron froze. His eyes widened as Harry turned to judge his reaction. Harry knew how much Ron fancied Meegan. When he wasn't bugging Harry about Hermione, it was his other topic of choice.
"Harry, am I imagining things or did Meegan just talk to me?" he was still frozen looking at her.
"She just talked to you," Harry smiled walking his group over to the empty benches next to Meegan and Hermione's group. Ron stood there dumbstruck for another moment before snapping to his senses and walking over to take the seat next to Meegan that Harry had made sure remained open. Harry, himself, had taken a seat on the other side of the group, out of earshot of Meegan and Ron.
"Hi," she smiled cheerily as he sat down. He looked at her and blushed as his arm brushed hers as he sat.
"Hello," he fumbled out.
Meegan smiled. This was her favorite phase of her and Allison's plan to get Harry and Hermione together. Phase One, as they had dubbed it, solely entailed of Meegan making friends with Ron and gaining his trust so they could use him later in Phase Two. She hadn't complained at all when Allison suggested using Ron. In truth, due to the fact she liked him, she was very happy to accept the assignment.
"So are you having a good time at camp so far?" she offered a bit of conversation. Everyone around them was still singing so she had to lean in a bit closer for Ron to be able to here her. This caused her to blush a bit along with Ron's already pink cheeks.
"Oh, I like it a lot. How many years have you been a counselor here for?" he inquired.
"This is my third year. I was a camper here for two years before that."
"You must like it here a lot then," he smiled, gazing at her goofily, having also leaned a bit closer to hear well.
"Oh, I do very much so. This summer looks very promising to be the best yet," she smiled with a wink before turning away from Ron as the singing died down and Greg began talking to start campfire.
Both Harry and Hermione had been watching their exchange from a distance. Harry figured it was right time Ron did something about his crush of Meegan. Hermione just smiled and thought it was cute that two of her friends liked each other so much.