Here's the next bit with two bits to go. A big thanks to my beta Tawny Spitfyre!
She Will be Mine - Part III
I waited a couple of days before trying out Plan B; I first had to "reset" my relationship with Hermione back to 'Condition: normal' before trying to elevate it to 'Condition: snogs away!' It took a couple days of being extra humble, but in the end I had her smiling as usual. So, now that I had her right where I wanted her (well, almost), it was time for Plan B, a little something I liked to call 'Plan B: Victor Krum' (obviously being sober hadn't helped my creativity when it came to naming my plans). Again, I didn't know if she was actually attracted to the guy or not, but she did get herself all dolled-up for him and accompany him to the Yule Ball. I mean, Hermione doesn't put Sleekeasy's in her hair for just anyone, so there had to be something about VK that Hermione found at least a little bit attractive; the trick was finding it.
Was it his fame? I dismissed that immediately, since I was many times more famous than he was. All he really had was his Quidditch, while not only did I save the wizarding world by defeating the most feared wizard of the past half-century, but I head-to-head I beat VK in the Tri-wizard Tournament, and I was only fourteen at the time. I'd pretty much wipe the dungeons with him now; bring it on, Krum!
Was it his Quidditch? Again, not likely. Hermione was never the biggest Quidditch fan in the first place, and besides, I'm a much better Seeker then he is. True, maybe he was better back when he was here for the Tournament, but I was only fourteen then; I'm loads better now. No, it wasn't either his fame or his Quidditch, since I rate higher in both categories.
Wait, wasn't I supposed to be humble? Oh yeah…stupid VK, he brings out the worst in me.
I guess it boiled down to personality, but to be honest, I had a hard time believing that. I mean, he's not exactly…fun to be around. In fact, he's downright grouchy. Does Hermione like grouchy? Nah. Maybe she liked how he always followed her around? But no, I remember her being pretty annoyed by that. Frankly, besides his fame, VK didn't seem to have anything that would appeal to Hermione; the guy even had bad posture and walked funny, sorta like a duck.
Well, on the one hand, he was a bit of the opposite of Lockhart. Where Lockhart was very proud of his (stolen) accomplishments, VK accepted his fans but didn't encourage them. His grumpy attitude actually discouraged them if anything, and he was a bit aloof to all the girls who wanted his autograph. Okay then, now I was cooking. I had my Plan B: grumpy and aloof, play 'hard to get.' Girls like that, right?
I set about it early one day. I was cranky during breakfast, grouchy during class, and irritable during lunch. I wasn't exactly rude to the countless students who seemed to follow me around, but I wasn't very accommodating either. During lunch I feared I might have taken the grumpy bit a bit too far, since Hermione seemed more annoyed by my attitude as opposed to looking like she was starting to find me irresistible. I dialed down the grumpiness a bit after that. I remained in this state for the rest of the day and the better part of the next, acting a little grouchy and not talking to Hermione as much as I usually do, though I grunted a lot. I actually thought things were going well until it all came to a head that night in the library.
I was sitting at the usual table with Hermione, doing homework. Ron was off with Lavender studying Divination, reading each other's tea leaves, if you know what I mean (actually, that was pretty bad, but there's not much innuendo when it comes to Divination, unless I want to be crude and refer to Ron's crystal ball). Things were going well - I was successfully ignoring Hermione and grunting every now and then - when two girls that looked like they were around our year approached the table.
"Hi Harry, hi Hermione," one of them, the darker haired girl, said.
Hermione looked up and said hi; I just grunted.
"Harry?" the lighter haired girl asked, "we were wondering if you could help us with this assignment in Defense?"
I looked up at the two girls. "Vhy - I mean why me?" I said in my best "go away" voice.
The girls looked a little taken aback, apparently not used to me being a grouch. "Well…uh," the lighter haired girl stammered.
"Listen," I said irritably. "I still have a lot of homework to do. I'll help you if I can later, okay?"
"Er, okay Harry," light hair said, looking a bit anxious.
"Sorry to bother you," dark hair said, but her tone sure didn't convey sorrow. The two girls walked back to their own table, and I returned to my parchment. After a second or two, I could feel someone looking at me, so I raised my head and saw Hermione giving me a look of disapproval.
"What?" I asked.
"That wasn't very nice, Harry."
"You mean those girls?" I asked, gesturing in their general direction.
"Yes. They were just asking for a little help. Even if you couldn't help them now, you could've been more polite about it."
"Honestly, Hermione," I said, thinking how VK would respond in a case like this. "Am I expected to help every stranger who comes to me asking for help?"
Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. "Stranger?"
"Yeah, stranger. I don't even know if I can help them; even if they aren't seventh years, we haven't exactly followed the same Defense curriculum every year."
Now she positively boggled at me, and I was getting a bit worried. "Are you serious, Harry?"
"Uh…yeah?" I said, though I wasn't a little afraid where this was going.
"Harry Potter! Those two girls are not strangers! I've shared a room with them for the past six years!"
Now it was my turn to boggle. "What?"
"Harry, we've shared every single class with them since our first year. They're your housemates, for God's sake!"
"Hold on, hold on," I said quickly. "You mean to tell me that there are two more sixth year Gryffindors girls at Hogwarts, and not once in the past six years have their names ever come up? That there've been two unnamed Gryffindor girls all this time?" Hermione glared at me. "Well," I said a bit sheepishly, "they must be very quiet then."
Hermione shook her head exasperatedly. "You mean to tell me you never noticed them before?"
I took a moment and thought hard. "There was that time in third year with the boggarts…I think."
"What's gotten into you Harry?"
"I'm sorry. But I honestly can't recall ever hearing them mentioned before. It's not like you ever talk about them or Ron-"
"That's not what I mean, Harry," she said, her face a strange mixture of concern and annoyance. "You've been acting very strangely the past couple days; frankly, you've been a jerk, and I don't like it."
Ah crap. Not exactly the reaction I was going for, was it? "Well…I…"
"Are you feeling all right? Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"
Stupid Plan B…stupid, stupid, stupid. "Um, no. I - I'm sorry I've been a jerk, Hermione. I really am. I promise I'll be back to normal from now on, okay?"
She looked a bit dubious, but she nodded. "Okay Harry. I hope so."
For the rest of the night I buried myself in my homework. So far, 'The Plan (name pending)' was a gigantic failure. Both Plans A and B backfired on me, and I find myself spending more time trying to get back in Hermione's good graces than I spend trying to seduce her. I briefly considered ditching Plan C and just plain asking her on a date, but I had already come this far. So, next up, Plan C; third time's the charm, they say. I hope 'they' are right.
******
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! I think one comment I get a lot is that Harry seems very out-of-character. While that's probably true, I actually think he is in character, and here's why. First, we all know Harry has a rather dry and sarcastic sense of humor, especially in OotP. Some of my favorites (I don't have the books in front of me, so please excuse any misquotes):
"Not this brave at night, are you?" sneered Dudley.
"This is night, Diddykins. That's what we call it when it goes all dark like this." (Chapter 1)
"Harry, don't go picking a row with Malfoy, don't forget, he's a prefect now. He could make like difficult for you…"
"Wow, I wonder what it'd be like to have a difficult life?" said Harry sarcastically. (Chapter 13)
"Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher," said Harry loudly, "there was just that minor drawback of him having Lord Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head." (Chapter 15)
And I think it can be agreed that Harry was a tad bitter in OotP. So, I see Harry has having a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, sometimes bitter, which I tried to write. I added in a greater-than-normal fear of rejection, because I figure after living with the Dursleys and then having the wizarding world love him and hate him in the same breath, the guy's got to be super insecure.