Here's more of Circle of Friends. I haven't updated this one in awhile. Hope you like it, this one is a lot different than my past fics. EnjoyJ
Chapter 2
Harry stumbled out of his bed, kicking the covers off as fast as he could. He ran to the window, placing his hands on the glass as he blinked stupidly at Hermione. Was he dreaming? Hermione was just outside his window on a...broomstick! And Tonks was on it as well, behind Hermione beaming at Harry. Hermione, however, looked terrified. Harry fumbled at the lock of his window and pushed it open. "Hermione, what are you..."
"Ask later, just get me off this thing!" she shrieked, desperately grabbing for Harry.
"Woah," he said when her arms flew around his neck. "Okay, easy, Hermione, I gotcha." He wrapped his arms around her as he helped her off the broom and through his window. When he got her safely in his room, he expected her to let go, but she still clung to him tightly. "Hermione?"
"I'm never riding with her again," she said still trembling.
Harry eyed Tonks over Hermione's head. Tonks just chuckled. "I fly a little too dangerously for her, I guess."
Harry smiled and then ran a comforting hand down Hermione's windblown hair. He was surprised how soft it was. "It's okay, Hermione, you know Tonks wouldn't put you in danger."
"I know," she said when she finally pulled away looking at him with wide eyes. "But that woman's crazy."
Taking no offense, Tonks laughed. "Sorry, Hermione. Look, Harry pack your trunk, okay?"
"What's...."
Tonks held up a hand to stop him. "No time for questions, Hermione will explain everything once I'm gone. I'm going first and taking your trunk, you and Hermione will wait awhile and then head back to the Order."
Harry didn't know what was going on, but he figured the faster he followed instructions, the quicker he'd get filled in. "Okay."
"Packing everything, but your wand and invisibility cloak," she said. "Just to be safe, you should travel with it."
Harry gave her a quick nod, before he quickly ran over to his bed and pulled out his trunk. Hermione sat on his unmade bed while she waited on him. He pulled out pants and shirts from his closet and chest of drawers and tossed them in his trunk. He saw Hermione wince at his messiness and couldn't help but grin at her. "Would you like to pack for me?"
"If we had time, I would teach you a think or two about neatness...Oh, Harry that's gonna get wrinkled!"
Harry had just stuffed one of his nice robes in the trunk. "I'll have Mrs. Weasley iron it out for me," he said with a short laugh as he tossed in a few more things, leaving out a change of clothes to put on before he headed out. "Okay, I think that's everything."
"Great, here tie this on your trunk," Tonks said as she tossed him a piece of robe. Harry did as she asked and watched Tonks levitate his trunk out the window. "Okay, you two wait here a good thirty minutes before heading out...it will cause less attention. Hermione, you remember how to get there?"
She nodded. "Yes, we'll be all right."
"All right, I'll see you two back at the Order. Be safe."
Harry and Hermione both stuck their heads out the window, watching her soar up high in the sky, before the clouds finally made her disappear from sight. Harry then looked at Hermione and waited until she finally looked over at him. "Hermione...what's going on?"
Hermione slid back inside along with Harry and they both shut the window closed. "Go change first...No, Harry," she insisted when he opened his mouth to argue. "We need to be ready to go as soon as we can, once you've changed I'll tell you."
"All right, all right," he relented as he walked over to his desk where he laid his change of clothes. He reached behind his back and fisted a handful of his shirt and yanked it over his head, tossing it on the floor before he grabbed his clean long sleeve blue shirt. He was about to put it on when he looked over to see that Hermione was staring. "You gonna watch or what?" he asked with a teasing grin.
Hermione's whole face flushed. "Oh! Sorry...of course not," she flustered and hastily turned her back on him.
He just shook his head in amusement when he watched her start to fiddle with his unmade bed. She was making his bed...how funny. "It really bugs you that much?" he asked her as he started to change into his jeans.
"No, of course not, I didn't mean to stare, Harry," she rambled as she started to fluff his pillow. "I mean, I wasn't really paying that much attention and I was thinking about stuff and all and...."
"Hermione," he said slightly laughing as he slipped on his trainers. "I was talking about you making my bed...not about watching me undress."
He couldn't see her face but noticed she froze her actions. "Oh...well, I just thought I'd tidy it up, while I waited for you to changed."
"Uh huh," he said as he stood up and straightened his shirt as he walked over to her. "Okay, you can turn around and now tell me what's going on."
Hermione smoothed out his bed one last time before finally turning around and sat on the edge of it. "Well," she started when Harry sat next to her. "Dumbledore feels that it might be safer for you to go ahead and come back to the Order."
"But why? I thought I was safer here?"
"I don't rightfully know, Harry. The Order still doesn't tell us much, but from what we could find out on the pair of Extendable Ears Fred and George left us, I think...well, I think they might have spotted Death Eaters nearby."
"Death Eaters? Here in Little Whinging?"
"I don't know, Harry, it's possible," she said looking extremely worried. "And Dumbledore of course didn't want to another episode like the summer before our fifth year, so he feels it would be best if you came to the Order."
He nodded. "I see."
"And he wanted to draw less attention to ourselves; that's why it was just Tonks and me. Ron probably would have been the one to come with Tonks, if he wasn't sick, but since he was out, I offered to go."
"Ron's sick?"
"Yeah, he got the wizard flu," she said with a wave of his hand. "Similar to Muggle flu, but a little worse. He's been throwing up constantly...at least it's not slugs."
He winced. "Poor Ron."
"Yeah, he's been in bed for a week, he's going stir crazy. Luna is about to drive him mad, the way she's constantly pestering him to stay in bed."
Harry couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Luna fussing over Ron almost as bad as Mrs. Weasley. "It's going to be great to see everyone. How's Draco and Ginny? They haven't killed each other yet?"
"Not yet, but they sure love to argue." Hermione looked at the clock. "When did Tonks leave?"
"About ten minutes ago. Do you think it's safe if we left?"
"I think it be all right. Oh, you might want to leave a note for your aunt and uncle, so they'll know where you are."
"Yeah, I guess...although they wouldn't care much." Harry walked over to his desk and ripped out a piece of paper from a notepad and scribbled down a quick message. He then went over to the window and pulled it back open peeking his head out looking up at the sky. "You ready?" he asked taking a hold of his Firebolt.
She looked uneasily at the broomstick as if it was about to jump out and attack her. "Ready as I'll ever be I guess."
He gave her grin. "Don't worry, I won't do anything crazy. I'll go fly on out and then hover next to the window."
She nodded. "Okay."
Harry crawled up to the window with his Firebolt and carefully climbed on before he took off and slowly circled back around. He reached for the windowsill and got as close as he could get. "All right, slide on in front of me."
She tried her best to put on a brave face, but Harry could tell she was very worried. He grabbed her hand as she walked out of the window and then slid an arm around her waist. "Careful...I gotcha...take your time."
Hermione let out a sigh of relief when she was finally on the broom in front of Harry. "I don't like this, I don't like this."
Harry chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her, clutching the broom with both his hands. "You're fine. You ready? Just tell me when your ready."
Harry felt her take a calming breath. "R-Ready."
"Okay...just lean back and enjoy the ride," he said into her ear before he finally reared the broom up and slowly took the both of them in the sky.
Harry instantly felt that familiar joy seep through him as he soared gracefully up to the clouds. Hermione's back was pressing against him, due to the slight vertical angle he was creating as he flew higher. He could feel how tense she was and even though he couldn't see her face, he knew her eyes were shut tight. He wrapped his arms more securely around her, still gripping the broomstick in front of her. "Hermione, relax," he murmured softly in her ear. "You're not going to fall...I won't let you."
"I know."
He felt her shiver. "Cold?" he whispered.
She shivered again. "Y-yeah...a little."
"Lean back against me a little more...it might help."
She let out a deep shaky breath as she scooted back until she was nestled between his legs and her back was resting against his broad chest. He could automatically feel the heat radiating from both of them and suddenly felt warmer. He didn't even realize he was cold until he felt the warmth she provided. "That's better, isn't it?"
She just nodded her head gently and he felt herself slowly begin to relax. "Are we good on the direction? From what I remember we head northwest for a bit."
"Yes, I think a town is coming up though, so you might want to veer to the right."
"Okay, hang on," he said and gently leaned to the right and Hermione moved with him. Her hair blew lightly across his face, tickling his nose but made no movement to push it aside. A pleasant scent swept over him and it took him awhile to realize the sweet scent was coming from Hermione. Funny, he never really paid attention to it and couldn't understand why he was just now noticing. She smelled really good. "Do you have Ron's perfume on?" he asked slightly teasing.
She let out a sarcastic laugh. "That bottle has been sitting on my dresser collecting dust for almost two years now."
He chuckled. "So what kind of perfume DO you have on?"
"I'm not wearing any perfume, Harry," she said. "Veer to the left...we need to head a little to the north."
He did as he was told. "Then how come you smell so good?"
She shifted around enough to look up at him. "I smell good?"
"Yeah...kind of like peaches."
She smiled shyly before turning back around. "It's just the soap I use, Harry. Honestly, I've used it since third year?"
"Really?" he asked dumfounded. "Huh...guess I never picked up on it until now, since we have never been this close."
"That doesn't surprise me."
"What? What's that suppose to mean?"
"Nothing...you might want to..."
But, she never got to finish what she was saying. Instead, she finished her sentence with a scream. A flash of red light flew by them, missing them only by inches. Harry swerved suddenly to avoid another flash of light, causing Hermione to lose her balance. She screamed as she started to slide off the broom and Harry watched in horror as she frantically tried to grab for something.
"HERMIONE!" Harry yelled when she saw her dangle dangerously from his broomstick with just one hand. "Give me your other hand!"
Her legs flared and her body swayed as she continued to grip the broomstick with her right hand. "Harry...I'm slipping!"
"No! Hang on...Don't let go!" he pleaded as he reached down as far as he could, trying to scoop his arm under hers. "Pull up! Try to pull up, Hermione!"
"I can't!" she cried.
Another light flashed by and Hermione shrieked again as their broom bucked. Harry saw her fingers lose grip and he quickly reacted by grabbing her wrist to keep her from falling. Now, only his one hand prevented Hermione from falling to the earth. "I've got you!"
She looked up at him fearfully. "Don't let me go!"
"I won't...Hermione, please...look at me...don't look down and concentrate on me. Look at my eyes and nothing else!"
Tears were streaming down her face as she looked up at him. "I won't let you go, Hermione," he said and clenched his hold on her tighter when another attack flew by them. He knew they were trying to bring them down...whoever they were. "Now, reach for the broomstick with your other arm...you can do it!"
She lifted her other arm up as high as she could and Harry tugged on her other arm, hoping it would help her reach the broom. "Good," he breathed when she managed to clasp the broomstick. "Almost...Hermione, try to pull yourself up!"
Harry could tell she was using all her strength and might she had in her tiny body as she pulled herself up, with Harry tugging on her arm as hard as he could. "That's it, Hermione...no don't look down...look into my eyes, remember?"
Hermione huffed and grunted as she began to pull herself up closer and closer. Harry quickly snaked his arm around her waist and yanked her whole body securely back onto the broom. He wrapped both his arms around her as she wept uncontrollably. "It's okay...I got you, you're okay. Hermione, we have to get on the ground. I want you to lean forward until you're lying flat against the broom." She was still shaking so he pressed her down himself with his upper body, so he was protecting her like a shield. "We're going to make it for the trees down below...do you see it?"
She sobbed as she nodded her head.
"Okay...hang on tight."
Harry then buried his face against her neck before suddenly dropping to a deep and fast dive, plummeting towards the earth.