"You know, I like spending time with you," Harry said fondly as he twirled a piece of Hermione's hair in his hand.
"Oh really?" she answered half-interestedly, her eyes not leaving the pages of the book she was reading. "That's nice to know, seeing as we're boyfriend and girlfriend."
Harry chuckled, causing Hermione's head, which was resting upon his lap, to shake. "You know what I mean. Ron's nice and all, but he just doesn't have the finer, womanly assets that you possess," he said, bending over and placing a kiss on her forehead.
Hermione sighed, rolling her eyes and knowing that she wasn't going to be able to finish her chapter tonight. She got up and kissed Harry back. "I can't read books with you… you're too much of a distraction." They kissed again, Hermione's arms coming to rest around his neck and Harry's encircling her waist. "Mmm…" Hermione said satisfyingly, closing her eyes as she made the noise. With the firelight dancing upon her face, Harry found her incredibly sexy at that point.
"I have to know," Hermione asked, her eyes fluttering open with a dreamy look in her eyes, "What was your first kiss like?"
Harry's brow furrowed. "Why?" he asked.
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. You're such a good kisser and all," she winked. "It just got me wondering."
Harry's gaze drifted down to the floor as he felt a blush creep up his cheeks. The discussion was slightly uncomfortable, and he would have thought that it would be with Hermione as well, seeing as his first kiss wasn't (unfortunately) with her.
"You were there when Ron asked," he stated, reflecting upon the time he returned to the Gryffindor Common Room after his encounter with Cho.
"Yeah, I know, but I can tell that you didn't tell everything," Hermione said. "Now come on, spit it out! I know it was with Cho, so I'm not going to get mad at you or anything."
Harry sighed. "Okay, well it was wet, like I said back in fifth year. She started crying because of, like you cleared up later on, of her conflicting feelings about Cedric and me."
Hermione huffed. "I know about her feelings. But what did you feel?"
"How do you think I felt? She started crying! I felt stupid and didn't know what to do!" he exclaimed.
Hermione smiled. "But before that… before you knew that it was going to end horribly."
"Thanks for that."
"No problem." She leaned back onto the couch and balanced her head upon her arm, eager to listen. "Now don't change the subject."
"Fine, fine." Harry paused. "This is really weird…"
Hermione lightly hit him with one of the scarlet throw pillows on the Gryffindor couch. "Come on, Harry! We're a couple… we're supposed to open up to each other!"
Harry glared up at the ceiling. "It felt nice, I guess. I mean, I really liked her at the time, right? So of course I was happy when we kissed." His eyes made contact with Hermione, who looked as if she were expecting more. "That's it."
"That's it?!" she exclaimed.
"That's it," Harry repeated. "What more is there? That's when she broke down crying and it all went downhill from there."
"I can't believe that that's all… wow, boys are nothing like girls…"
" 'Course not! Girls are the fairer sex after all," he leaned forward and kissed her again. She didn't respond very enthusiastically. "What's wrong?" he questioned, drawing back.
"Oh nothing… I was just expecting more, that's all."
Seeing that she wasn't going to give up on the subject anytime soon, Harry decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. "Alright, what was your first kiss like then?"
Hermione looked thoughtfully into the fireplace. "W-ell…" she started skeptically.
"I probably already know, too. Let me guess… it was Viktor. Or even Ron!" Harry said, feeling very indifferent about who Hermione's first kiss was, seeing as he probably already knew about it. Quite like how Hermione wasn't bothered with his first kiss with Cho…
"No. It wasn't Viktor or Ron."
Harry's heart skipped a beat. "Excuse me?" he said, suddenly not feeling very indifferent anymore. "Who was it?" he demanded a little too loudly.
This didn't faze Hermione for she was looking a little dreamy, which irked Harry at that moment. "It was this boy I've known since primary school. His name was Benjamin, but I just called him Benji."
"Benji?!" Harry almost shouted, then remembering to keep his voice down for everyone else was asleep in their dormitories. "You had a pet name for him and everything?"
Hermione scoffed. "Don't be silly. A pet name? Everyone called him that!"
"Oh," Harry said shortly.
"But yes, we were childhood friends. He was really nice to me, even when we were little and most boys were in the 'girls are yucky' stage. Yeah… he used to push me on the swings when we went to the park together…"
Harry shifted on the couch. He didn't like the mental picture of another guy pushing Hermione on the swings… even if the gesture was seemingly innocent.
"It happened right after fifth year. He had noticed that I was feeling and looking unusually stressed so we talked a lot during that summer. Of course I couldn't tell him everything that was stressing me out."
Harry coughed. The summer after fifth year… right when little stirrings in his stomach began at the thought of Hermione… uncomfortable was an understatement. But by the far-off look on her face, it didn't look as if she were going to stop talking.
"So anyway, when he tried to cheer me up, he brought me to the park… the one we always went to when we were small. But as we were walking, it started raining, and it only got harder. So there we were, walking in the whipping rain and then… he kissed me." She sighed musingly. "That was Benji. I know it must sound pretty lame… not getting my first kiss until the age of-Harry, you okay?"
Harry sat there rigidly. "What happened to… Benji?" he asked.
"Oh, he moved away during the summer after sixth year. We still keep in touch though, but we've been pretty distant as of late." Silence followed. The two of them sat in silence, and the vibes radiating off of Harry weren't very pleasant.
"You're not upset, are you?" Hermione asked.
"No. Not. At. All." He continued staring blankly into the fire.
"Yes, I believe you as much as I believe that Professor Snape enjoys candlelit dinners and walks on the beach." She scooted closer to him. "Harry, you have nothing to be upset about! We're together now, aren't we?"
"Yes."
"Then isn't that what matters?" She began kissing his cheek, then his chin and finally coming upon his lips. Harry didn't respond. She pulled back, irritated. "You're being ridiculous, Harry. I have no feelings for Benji!" She saw a slight twitch in Harry's eye. "Benjamin! Look, I'll call him Benjamin from now on! I won't even mention him, if that's what you want!"
"No… it's not what I want. It's just-" he blew at his fringe. "I don't like the way you talk about him."
Hermione frowned. "Exactly how do I talk about him? What's so different about the way I talk about him than when I comment on the weather?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know! It's just that… you get this… thing in your eye!"
"I get a thing in my eye?" Hermione raised her eyebrows.
Harry got up from the couch and began pacing. He, himself, was beginning to wonder why Benji… er… Benjamin, was annoying him so much. "Yes! This look. A look that… oh never mind!"
"No, Harry, tell me," she said firmly, standing up too.
"No. I sound like some terrible, jealous monster."
"But you're jealous, aren't you?"
Harry didn't reply.
"Harry! You have nothing to be jealous about! You want to know what happened after my kiss with Benji-er-amin? We laughed. We laughed because it felt weird. We laughed because we knew that nothing was going to happen between us because the kiss was weird. So after the kiss, we walked to the arcade, soaking wet, and played a round of air hockey. What's to be jealous about that?"
Harry mumbled incoherently. But he finally said, "I don't know, Hermione. Maybe I just have to sleep on it or something. I'm going to bed." He gave a quick, half-hearted kiss on the cheek. Any quicker, he would have missed her cheek entirely.
"Fine then. Night, Harry." She turned on her heel and marched off to her room without so much as a backwards glance.
After a few minutes, Harry did the same.