A/N: Well I was planning to leave this as a one shot, but then I wanted to do Hermione's POV, so here we are. But this is the last part I promise. Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed, and those who are going to (nudge nudge)
Hermione Granger loved pumpkins. She loved them as much as a person could without it being thought morally objectionable. Why? Well if you don't know by this point, she's not going to tell you. . .
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Earlier. . .
Hermione stood with the rest of her Care of Magical Creatures class, outside of Hagrid's hut. He held up a crup for the class to see, although most of the class seemed bored.
"Yeh'll have teh house-train 'em like a Muggle dog, o' course. . ." Hermione pulled her cloak tighter at a breeze that blew through the class. Today was a bit too cold for her liking.
"There are certain steps yeh take to hide 'em. Now who can tell me why yeh clip their tails?"
Hermione thrust her hand into the air, and at Hagrid's nod:
"It's a precaution you take by using a simple Severing Charm so Muggles don't notice the forked tail."
"Righ' yeh are, Hermione," Hagrid said as he let the crup down so it could run through the legs of the class. She watched as it ran past Ron, and yipped at Harry before moving on.
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Present. . .
"It was so romantic Hermione!" Lavender and Parvati squealed in tandem as Hermione came back from the showers.
"Romantic?" she said with incredulity. "Walks under the stars and candlelight dinners are romantic! A quasi-snog while laying in an inch of pumpkin innards doesn't exactly ring of romance to me." Lavender and Parvati's faces fell
"So you're saying you didn't like it then?" asked Lavender, now looking quite put-out.
"I didn't say that. . ." mumbled Hermione, now blushing ten shades of red.
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Earlier. . .
"Now, yeh'll need to get a licence for 'em, so the Ministry'll know yeh - " Hagrid stopped mid sentence, his eyes widening as he looked toward his hut. Hermione followed his eye line and. . .
POP!
This was quite possibly the most disgusting Hermione Granger had ever felt in her life. She loved him to death, but she wasn't surprised Hagrid had messed up a simple Enlargement Charm. She wiped the orange pulp off of her face, and was contemplating the state of her robes, when she heard a squish, followed by uproarious laughter.
"Oh, Harry. . .are you all right?" she asked on seeing her best friend on the ground. She took a step toward him, and. . .
Did she feel cold before? How could she? Because right now, it was downright stifling. Her and Harry's noses were touching, and she dimly realised in addition to the pumpkin, he smelt like that Muggle aftershave he liked to use. She would be a liar if she said she hadn't thought about Harry in. . .well, a more than friendly way. But he would never. . .
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Present. . .
Hermione hurried down the girls' staircase, wondering what exactly she would say to Harry when she saw him. Well Harry, I know you're my best friend and all, but I think you're bloody sexy, and lately all I can think about is you and I snogging each other senseless. . .Well, maybe that's a bit forward. . .
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Earlier. . .
After they broke apart, Hermione quickly moved off of Harry (If this went any further, she didn't want the entire class to be their audience), and watched as Harry stood up and scampered off up the lawns. The class was completely silent as they stared at Hermione, who was still sitting on the ground.
"He kissed me . . ." she said to herself, "He kissed me," she smiled then, and fell back to the ground, making an odd squelching sound. She sighed happily and looked up at the sky.
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Present. . .
She stopped at the boys' staircase, and took a deep breath before continuing. She found Seamus Finnigan leaning on the door, a disgruntled look on his face. One look and he had started down the stairs.
"Harry?" she called, "Can you open the door?" Her question was met with silence.
"You know I can break this spell Harry - please let me in." He was lucky she put the 'please' in there. . .
The door swung open, and she stepped in to see him getting up from bed. Any of the previous confidence she had had about confronting him vanished as soon as soon as she saw the frightened, nervous look in his eyes. She approached him, feeling none too steady.
"We need to talk," she started, "About. . .um. . .what happened before. Do you regret that. . .that you kissed me." He opened his mouth to respond, but she stopped him. "You need to be honest with me Harry - we've been lying for too long, it seems."
"Whether or not I regret it," Harry said, looking at anything but her, "Depends on how you feel about it." Was he even listening to her? Honestly, the boy could be so thick . . .
"If you would have stuck around for a minute afterward, you would already know how I felt about it, and you wouldn't have spent the last half hour in here, bemoaning life." Seeing he still wasn't getting the point, she moved even closer to him and smiled. "Do. You. Regret. It."
"No," he said, and Hermione breathed an internal sigh of relief. "I don't." Finally. . .
"Well good then - now that we've got that out of the way - "
Thank Merlin for pumpkins. . .