A/N: See I do have the capacity to write quickly! Lol. I dunno how fluffy this chapter's gonna be, but it's definitely longer than chapter 3. Once more, thanks to all my faithful reviewers!
Erin: Okay, that's disturbing…
Nicole: Yes, Heaven and Ryoko are goddesses to me. :: Falls to knees :: I'm so happy you think this does justice to Just Kiss Me! YAY
Clair: To short? The next few chapters are gonna be longer, then. That was a bit of a short one, wasn't it?
Hermione and Harry 4Ever: 15 going on 16? Really now… Me too! Well, Heaven and Ryoko will, if I beg and plead and suck up enough, probably help me with some of the later chapters just to kick up the rating a bit, if you know what I mean ;) Nothing past R, though, promise!
LordAnHur: Yes, Ron and his slugs. Whoo-hoo! I think…oh, what's his name? Rupert Grint! I think he had a bit too much fun with the slugs…
Anyway, this chapter focuses around what happens with Cho in their 5th year. I know some of you are wondering where Voldemort is. THIS WILL NOT BE THATFLUFFY! I HAVE NOT GOTTEN RID OF VOLDEMORT! Promise ;) You'll see…Not yet, though. Enjoy!
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"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Cho said quickly as she turned the corner right into Harry.
"Oh!" Harry cried, just as surprised as she was; why a Ravenclaw would be walking the corridors between the library and the Gryffindor tower was beyond Harry. Neither of them was carrying anything so it was a relatively clean collision, and Harry knew that his forehead would be bruised from where his hit Cho's. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Don't worry about it. I should be fine. I think I hit you pretty good, though…"
"It's okay, really."
"Yeah," Cho said sheepishly, "I guess nothing this small hurts after-I'm sorry."
"What?" Harry asked, confused by her half-comment. "Oh…Cho, please, I told you what happened."
"I'm sorry, Harry. I just need someone to blame, and my mind just kind of associates you with that whole mess whether I want it to or not. Believe me, I've put Cedric behind me as much as I can, but…" She stopped and took a deep breath; Harry saw that talking about Cedric could still bring her to the verge of tears.
"I know how it feels to lose someone you love," Harry said weakly. "I've lived my life knowing that Voldemort killed my parents, but I've never lost someone I've loved like Hermione. Still, I know how much it hurts." Cho flinched twice as he spoke-once when he mentioned Voldemort's name, and again when he said Hermione's name.
Harry wondered if Cho was afraid of Hermione, as well. But why? The only people who should have really feared Hermione were those like Malfoy who drove her to the edge and back in only a few words.
Cho seemed a bit lost for words. To her relief, she heard Su Li calling her from down the hall. With a hurried and grateful goodbye, she turned and ran off to meet her friend.
"That was weird," Harry said to himself. Shrugging it off, he walked over to where Ron and Hermione were approaching. Harry had waited for Hermione in the common room after dinner, but she didn't come, so Harry set to searching for her in the library. Not finding her there, either, he was going to go back to the common room to wait, when he bumped into Cho.
"There you are!" Harry called to Hermione. "I've been looking for you all over!"
"Sorry," she laughed. "I've been looking for you, too. Did you forget?"
"Forget what?" Harry had no idea what Hermione was talking about.
"Honestly, Harry," she sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "You said you'd meet me by the library?" She reached into her robes and pulled out a scrap of parchment. Harry took it and glanced at it quickly. It looked like his handwriting, but he didn't remember writing it.
"Meet me by the library after dinner. I want to talk to you," it read.
"I never wrote this," Harry said, perplexed.
"Then it seems someone's been trying to lure us apart. Kind of scared me when I read it…the wording was a bit…Oh, never mind," Hermione said tiredly. "Sounds like something Malfoy would do, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, though I doubt he'd have the brains to copy your handwriting like this," Ron said.
"Gee, thanks, Weasel." Ron spun around to face the unsmiling Draco Malfoy, his silver hair slicked back and reflecting a shade of gold in the dim light. "I appreciate the compliment."
Without another word, he stormed off, much to the disapproval of Crabbe and Goyle, who both wanted to inflict more than a sarcastic comment or two toward Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Left without much choice, however, they shrugged and followed Draco.
"Did anyone but me think that was a bit…odd?" Ron said after Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were satisfactorily out of earshot.
"So I didn't fall asleep through an insult-fest? How come Malfoy didn't offer to punch your face in, Harry?" Harry looked as lost as Hermione and Ron, but he shrugged it off.
"Maybe he's learning to be a good human," Harry said good-naturedly. "There must be some part of him that can't be all that bad."
Hermione looked at Harry as though he'd spoken treason against the library. "Are we talking about the same Malfoy here? I'm referring to the one who calls me Mudblood, the one who calls Ron the Weasel, and the sick-mouthed prick who insists on calling you any other derogatory names he can think of at the moment. Which Malfoy in some faraway corner of the world are you talking about?"
"Honestly, Hermione," Harry said, beginning to sound a lot like Hermione, "He's still human. Your parents are dentists, aren't they? They must've gone through extensive medical training, and if I know you-and I do-you know about as much as they do. So you should know," he said, casting a somewhat reprimanding glare at Hermione, "that simply being a Malfoy through his genes has nothing to do with it, even though his…environment may contribute to his behavior. Either way, it's a scientific impossibility that he's mean to the core."
"Blimey, Harry," Ron said, giving Harry a warm, impressed stare, "I don't think you can put that into more Hermione-esque terms. I hardly followed you there!" Hermione slapped him gently on the arm, and rolled her eyes.
"If that's how you feel about Malfoy, that maybe he's finally learning how to be a proper human and not…an animal even Slytherin wouldn't want, then I suppose there's no convincing you otherwise," Hermione sighed. Harry smiled and discreetly took her hand in his as the three of them walked back to the Gryffindor common room. As they were walking, he vaguely heard her mutter something about Malfoy being a four-letter-word that Harry was shocked he'd ever hear Hermione say.
"Whatever," Harry sighed. Hermione leaned her head on Harry's shoulder as they continued walking.
"Won't you kiss me?" she asked quietly in Harry's ear.
"Will you acknowledge that I'm right and you're wrong for once?" Harry asked slyly.
"Never," Hermione replied with the same tone of mock arrogance in her voice. In reply, Harry looked ahead once more, ignoring Hermione. Hermione put on her best puppy-dog face, and Harry began to find it increasingly difficult to walk with Hermione hanging on his arm and looking at him that way. The last thing he needed was for Ron to turn around or for someone to walk up and see them.
Someone like Cho, who seemed to be redoubling her steps from earlier that afternoon. Harry sighed to himself, and Hermione quickly straightened herself as best she could before Cho would see her. Nonetheless, Cho saw Harry and Hermione as she raised her head. She turned away quickly with a small, forced smile and ran down the corridor.
Suddenly, it dawned on Harry. "It's you," he said to Hermione.
"Huh?" she asked.
"It's you. Cho's been acting so weird around me because of you," Harry said.
"You mean she actually does like you? Why does my life have to be such a damned soap opera?" she sighed.
"No, no," Harry assured her. "It's just seeing me, the one who's associated with Cedric's death, with a girlfriend"-Harry noticed an unrestrained smile on Hermione's face as he said that-"when Cedric, the one she was in love with, was killed."
"Oh," Hermione said slowly. "I guess I'd feel bad in her situation, too."
"Yeah. But she's been really nice to me lately. I don't know if she's just forcing it so it seems like there's no hard feelings, but we've been on really good terms lately. I mean, I guess you could even say we're friends, rather than just acquaintances."
"Don't you go getting any farther than that, though," Hermione said. She noticed Ron turning around to glance at them and felt bad that they'd been leaving him out of their conversation. "I'm sorry, Ron! We just kind of…got lost in our own little world."
"That's all I need to know," Ron said quickly.
"That is not what I meant, mind you! I'm sorry, we won't do that anymore. Can I make it up to you? How about some pumpkin pie? I'm sure Dobby would be happy to oblige."
"Oh, yeah," Ron said with a laugh, "and make this a love triangle? I know what happens when you two get around pumpkin pie, and I'm choosing not to be a part of that." They all laughed as they approached the Fat Lady's portrait.
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Please review, everyone! Thanks so much. This didn't turn out THAT much longer than chapter 3, but I promise (that's three promises in one chapter…can I keep them all?) that things start to get interesting. There's actually a plot developing! :: Clapping :: Yes, no mindless shagging for these two for a while. :)