A/N: Here's chapter 4! Thanks so much for the feedback you guys! You're amazing!
Wicked Game -- Chris Isaak
What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way.
What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you.
What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way.
What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you
Hermione stared at the closet pondering what one should wear to a dance lesson. She had no experience with such a thing and in her entire life, had never really thought more than two minutes over what she should wear. Lavender was the one who worried incessantly over fashion, makeup and hair. Hermione was more laid back in her appearance. She cared about what she looked like, of course, but she was more concerned about comfort and practicality than style and fashion.
She felt somewhat silly standing in front of the closet wondering what she should wear. It wasn't a date, after all. It was just a dance lesson. She'd be lying if she said the idea of spending time alone with Harry in situations that would require them to touch and be close didn't appeal to her. It did. If she was being honest, it was one of the reasons she'd agreed to help. Well, that, and the way he'd acted as if she wouldn't be able to do it. She'd show him. If she had to work her arse off to do it, she'd show him and he'd have to eat his words.
She impatiently pulled hangers from the closet and discarded them onto the bed with despair.
If I wear a dress, he'll think I'm trying too hard to impress him, won't he?
"What are you doing?" Lavender asked, coming into the room the two girls were sharing and sitting down on the edge of her bed.
"Getting dressed," Hermione said, without a glance back at her cousin.
"Looks to me like you're trying to pick out an outfit," Lavender said, raising her eyebrows at her cousin. "What will it be today, the sensible shorts and t-shirt or the sensible dress and jumper? I see the dilemma, Hermione."
Hermione turned around and glared at her cousin.
"It's just lunch, Hermione," Lavender said sarcastically. "Don't tell me you're trying to impress Dudley?"
Hermione finally picked out a pair of denim shorts and a blue cotton t-shirt and set them on the bed. She couldn't tell Lavender that after lunch she was to meet Harry. Her mother had been going on and on about getting the girls to spend the day with her by the pool, but Hermione planned to beg off with a headache or a stomach-ache.
"No, I'm not trying to impress him," Hermione said. "I was just being a little extra careful about what I wore today. No reason."
"Uh-huh," Lavender said, watching as Hermione picked up her clothes and walked into the bathroom. "You do remember that the staff members of the resort doesn't eat meals with the guests, don't you? I doubt you'll see Harry in the dining room."
Hermione opened the bathroom door and stuck her tongue out at her cousin.
"Sod off, Lavender," she said, before closing the door firmly behind her.
Lavender shook her head in amusement. "And they call me the immature one."
*** *** ***
Harry glanced at his watch. "Ten minutes late," he muttered as he glanced out the window again. He had been wrestling with himself all day over this, wondering whether or not he should call it off.
"It's just not the right time for this," Harry sighed; pushing his hands through is already messy hair. It seemed ridiculous, really, the way his heart beat faster when he thought of Hermione. She was not normally the type of girl he would glance at, at first he hadn't even thought she was that cute… at least not until he'd seen her close up for the first time.
It was also the way she carried herself. It was as if Hermione didn't care what people thought of her; he'd seen the way she had pushed Dudley away (something Harry would have never thought another human being could ever do, knowing the size of his cousin) and it had made him chuckle later.
Harry hadn't been sure of his intentions when he asked her to dance, but when he'd placed his arms around her waist and slid her body against his… it had taken nearly ever ounce of self control to not take her back to his cabin and… Harry shook his head. "I can't be thinking of this now…"
He paced around the room. "I've got to be there for Cho before I can start going off with another girl… this is just a working relationship. That's all I'll let it be."
"All you'll let what be?" a breathy voice said from behind him. He turned to see Hermione standing in the doorway, clutching her side. Her cheeks were red from running.
"Nothing," Harry straightened up. "So nice of you to join me." his voice held a tinge of sarcasm.
She looked apologetically at him. "I know. I know. Lunch ran a little later than expected. My dad was talking to me about university and I tried to get away as quick as I could."
Harry huffed irritably. "Well I need you to be here on time from now on, otherwise this will never work. We need EVERY minute of these lessons for you to get the dance perfectly. If you mess up while we're on stage...." he let his voice trail off.
"I won't mess up," she said crossly as she came further into the room. So much for picturing him being all romantic, she thought to herself as he stared coldly at her.
Harry relaxed a bit as he saw Hermione bristle. "All right... first things first here... I want you to listen to the music we'll be dancing to a few times before I start teaching you the steps. Also, what experience have you had dancing so far?"
She looked thoughtfully at him. "Well, I've danced at a couple of holiday parties and wedding receptions, but that was mostly with my dad and some uncles, actually."
Harry nodded, then crossed over to the CD player in the corner. "You learn things quickly I assume?"
She walked over and joined him at the CD player and watched as he flipped through the CD collection. "Well, I was top of my class at Beauxbatons. I told you that last night," she reminded him. He sure isn't making this easy on me, she thought to herself.
"Oh..." Harry thought back a moment to their conversation. "You did, I'm sorry." He set the CD into the player. "Just listen..." he started the music.
She couldn't help looking at him as she listened to the music and if she wasn't mistaken, he was stealing glances at her, too. She tried to regain her focus and listen to the music, feeling its rhythm and listening to the melody. A smile played at her lips as the music filled the room.
Harry couldn't help but watch as she closed her eyes and smiled at the beautiful music. What the bloody hell am I thinking... I can't stop my feelings... he thought. He got up and took her hand. "I'm going to guide you... just follow my lead. I'll take you through it slowly..."
She opened her eyes and nodded as he put his other hand on her waist. She couldn't help but feel a little light-headed as they moved. She kept wanting to look down at her feet to make sure she was doing this right, but he wouldn't let her.
"First rule of dancing, no looking down," Harry said. Hermione could see he was still holding back but at least he was treating her civilly now. "Like I told you the other night, just look at me and follow what you feel. The tango isn't an easy dance but it's a beautiful one if everything is done correctly."
She wondered if she should tell him that if she followed what she felt when she looked at him, well, she'd no longer be a virgin.
*** *** ***
Ginny Weasley trudged over the hill on her way to the staff dining hall to get something to eat on her break. She was in a sour mood, as Harry continued to ignore her attempts to get him to notice her.
"Bloody prat doesn't know a good thing when he sees it," she grumbled. She was about to turn on the fork in the path when she heard music coming out of the dance studio. Curious, Ginny crept to the window and gasped.
Harry was inside, dancing closely with a girl about his age. At Ginny's first glance, the girl was rather plain, with boring clothes and extremely bushy hair.
But it was the way he was looking at her that made Ginny's blood boil. Her eyes were closed, but Harry was staring at her in a way that made her eyes narrow.
"I'm in love with someone else," Harry replied coolly. "But that's really no one's business but my own." Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth as she remembered his words from the night she tried to seduce him.
"Ugh!" she scrambled away from the window. "How can he be in love with her?" Ginny nearly ran away from the dance studio.
A few minutes later, she was carrying a soda and some potato crisps back with her to the lake. The last place she wanted to be was working. She sat down on the lifeguard stand and took a sip of her soda.
She was trying to figure out who that girl dancing with Harry was when she saw Draco Malfoy walking toward the lake. She pulled off her sunglasses prepared to flash him a flirtatious smile. To her dismay, he passed right by her and started chatting up another girl.
"Hey," Draco leaned over Lavender's lounge chair and gave her a seductive smile. "You're looking lovely as always today," he gave her a lascivious wink.
Lavender giggled. "What are you doing all the way down here? I thought you had to work?"
"I managed to get the afternoon off to spend with you," Draco leaned down to kiss her. "Want to go for a walk?"
"Let me think about it," she teased. She crinkled up her nose and then slyly nodded. She offered him her hand which he took and with one swift motion, she was on her feet and in his arms.
Draco took an appreciative glance at her bikini clad body as she jumped into a pair of shorts. If only she'd let herself go he'd give her a shag she'd never forget. He slid his arm around her waist as they walked off to the woods.
Ginny stared at the two of them as they walked off. What in the world was going on, she wondered. First Harry, now Draco. She chided herself for caring what Draco Malfoy did and who he did it with. They were just having a bit of fun, after all. They'd both agreed that there would be no strings attached.
She sighed heavily as she flopped back against the lifeguard chair. "Why do I bloody care? It's only shagging, I'm not looking for any sort of relationship." She spent the rest of the afternoon convincing herself of just that.
*** *** ***
Draco sneaked glances at the girl walking along side of him. Lavender had let her blonde hair loose and the waves flowed down her back; Draco slid his fingers through the cool locks. He also stole several looks down her bikini top.
It's really a beautiful day, isn't it?" Lavender asked, as they walked along.
"Quite," Draco said. "I missed you this morning at breakfast," he leaned down and nuzzled her ear.
She giggled as he tickled her neck with kisses. "We were late because my cousin couldn't decide what she wanted to wear. Can you believe that?"
"Not really," Draco replied. "She certainly doesn't seem like the type to bother with that... not like you; you always look stunning." he said smoothly.
"Thanks," she said, her cheeks turning a little red. She still couldn't believe someone this good looking actually thought the same of her. She was about to say something else when she suddenly found his lips pressed firmly to hers.
Draco backed her up to a tree, his tongue sneaking out into her mouth. His hands began to roam over her scantily clad body. "You feel so good," he said before kissing her again. "Lavender I want you so bad..." his hand began to creep over her breast as his tongue thrust greedily through her lips.
He was getting a little too rough for her and she took her hand to his chest and pushed him away. "Come on, Draco," she said breathlessly. "We can't do something like that out here! Anyone could walk by."
"So, let them walk by," Draco replied carelessly. "No one comes out here during the day anyways."
Lavender frowned at him. "I don't know what it would mean to you, but I certainly don't want to lose my virginity in a forest." When he didn't answer her, she continued. "Come on, Draco. What's wrong with getting to know each other before we do something like that? We did only meet a few days ago."
Draco felt his anger and sexual frustration tense inside him... he forgot that he'd just had sex the previous night with Ginny. "Why bother to waste time talking when we could be getting to know each other in a better way?"
Lavender put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't get angry with me. I'm not saying that I don't want to do that, but I just want to wait until I'm ready. I want someone who'll respect me, Draco. It's important to me."
Draco glared furiously. "Fine. It wasn't worth my time anyway," he pushed away and stalked back off through the forest towards his cabin.
Lavender watched him leave, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness as she watched him go. How could she have been so wrong about him, she thought to herself as tears welled up in her eyes. She walked quickly back toward her own cabin, hoping that she could talk to Hermione about what had just happened.
*** *** ***
Hermione pulled off her shirt- it was soaked in sweat. Harry had given her an extremely tough workout, but she'd learned the first few steps of the dance. He had done some more snapping and he'd practically run out of the room when they were finished. Hermione just couldn't figure out what was going on in Harry's head. Some of the time she would catch him looking at her with a softer look in his eyes but then the coldness would fall back in and she couldn't get a word out without him shouting at her. She wrapped a robe around her and got ready to take a quick shower before dinner.
Hermione's own thoughts were interrupted by the slamming of the screen door to the front of the cabin. She heard footsteps running toward her bedroom and she jumped when Lavender came barging into the room, sobbing and threw herself on her bed.
"Lav what's wrong?" Hermione asked in concern, sitting down beside her cousin.
Lavender looked up from her pillow and tried to speak, but whatever she said was unintelligible as she broke down in uncontrollable sobs again.
Hermione had a sneaking suspicion why her cousin was currently bawling into her pillow. "Lav... did he....."
Lavender looked up again from her pillow. She dabbed her cheek with the corner of the pillow and then said sadly, "He tried, but I wouldn't let him."
Hermione hugged Lavender. "I'm sorry Lav... I wish he wasn't such an arse... I know you liked him a lot."
Lavender nodded and rested her head on Hermione's shoulder. "He just pawed at me in the middle of the forest, Hermione. I didn't think he was like that."
"Want me to hex him into a little girl with ringlet curls?" Hermione tried to joke. "I will if you want me to..."
Despite herself, Lavender couldn't help laughing as the image of Draco Malfoy as a little girl flashed into her mind. "That might be a good idea. I'll keep that in mind. I know it sounds so clichéd, but do you ever wonder if there are any good guys out there? I mean, they can't all just want to get in your knickers, can they?"
Hermione's thoughts wandered to Harry briefly before she pushed him out of her mind. "I don't know Lav... I just don't know."
*** *** ***
At just past five, Draco and the other members of the wait staff began setting the tables. It was the part of the job Draco hated the most. This was work that house elves did. He kept reminding himself that he just had to make it through this crap job for one summer and he'd have his father off his back.
Hermione stormed up to the restaurant, intending on having a conversation with the object of her cousin's desire. He had some nerve to behave the way he did. She flung open the door and immediately saw Draco across the room.
Draco had just moved on to set another table when he looked up to see Lavender's cousin coming straight for him, anger written all over her face. Though, from what he knew of her, she usually wore that expression whenever she was around him. He rolled his eyes as she came toward him.
"I need to have a word with you," Hermione said tightly.
"I'm a little busy," he said dismissively. "And dinner doesn't start until six."
Hermione looked around, and upon seeing that all the other waiters were busy in the other corner of the room, she whipped out her wand and pointed it directly between his eyes. "Well unless you fancy your bits and pieces shrunken to the size of peanuts, which probably wouldn't make much of a difference anyway, you'll listen to what I have to say." her eyes gleamed dangerously in the overhead light. "I was the smartest witch in my class and I know lots of spells and hexes. So don't tempt me to use them."
He drew back and looked around. "What's the matter, Hermione?" he asked her, with his trademarks sneer firmly in place. He wasn't about to let on that she intimated him, especially with her wand pointed at him. "Are you jealous that I didn't make a move on you, first?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "I know what you did to Cho," she said, her lip curling up. "I think you're disgusting, and a pathetic waste of flesh." she moved the tip of her wand even closer. "You stay away from Lavender, and you stay away from me. Or I'll hex you until you mother would cry just to look at you and I'll have you fired." she swiftly pocketed her wand and spun around on her heel and left.
*** *** ***
Ron took his tray from the cafeteria style buffet and looked around for Harry. His raven haired friend was nowhere to be found, he was probably checking up on Cho, who was also missing in action. He sighed and sat down at the edge of one of the tables, listening to his fellow employees chatter around him.
Luna was balancing her tray in one hand and had a copy of her father's newspaper, The Quibbler, tucked under her arm. She was planning on eating a quick dinner and then maybe going out on the docks to do some stargazing. She looked around the crowded room for an empty table and couldn't help grinning when she saw Ron sitting alone, stuffing his face as always. She hesitated for a moment before deciding to see if he wanted some company.
"Hello," a dreamy voice made Ron drop his sandwich and look behind him. Luna Lovegood was smiling at him. "May I sit down?"
"Sure, I guess... if you really want to." Ron replied. "I don't know where Harry is."
Luna set her tray gingerly down on the table and took a seat across from him. "So, I guess I couldn't sit here if Harry was here? Or I wouldn't want to sit here if Harry wasn't here?"
Ron smiled. "Well with the way he's been lately, you probably wouldn't want to sit here if Harry was here." he stuffed some chips into his mouth. "He's been a bloody arse lately with this Cho situation."
Luna nodded sympathetically. "I hope everything works out. I'm going to be taking over some of her classes for her."
That's really nice of you," Ron replied. "And it's nice you're helping me to dance." she smiled at him and Ron was again taken back by her luminous blue eyes. "How have I done so far?"
Luna looked at him with twinkling eyes. "You're doing okay, for a beginner. I think you managed to only step on my toes three times today. That's way down from the nearly twenty times on your first lesson. So, you're definitely improving."
"That's good to know." Ron smiled again. "Did you say you wanted to practise again tonight?"
"Actually," she said apologetically. "I wanted to know if we could take a night off. This is going to be a really clear night and I wanted to go down by the lake and check out the stars."
"Oh," Ron felt disappointed for some reason.
Luna looked down at her tray, unsure of what she should say. "Well," she began, smiling at him. "If you want, you could come with me."
Ron was silent a moment. Did he really want to go stargazing with Luna Lovegood? A starlit night was an awfully romantic setting, and as he liked the girl he just wasn't sure he wanted something to happen between them. On the other hand, she was rather harmless. "Sure... that could be fun." he finally said.
Luna was quite surprised that he'd said yes. She tried not to look as taken aback as she was.
"Have you ever been stargazing?" she asked, choosing her words carefully as she still remembered the awkwardness that followed when she'd asked him how much "experience" he had. "I mean, other than the Astronomy classes we had at Hogwarts?"
"No," Ron swallowed the rest of his dinner. "You'll have to show me some of the constellations."
"Sure," she said, warmly. She noticed that he was eyeing her chicken salad, which she hadn't really touched. "Do you want this?"
"If you don't," Ron replied. Luna slid it over to him and smiled as he wolfed it down.
A/N: Well here you guys go! We've also decided to pull THREE winners for the soundtrack rather than just one :) We're taking down who has been reviewing each chapter so far and at the end, you'll all have more of a chance to win!!
Thanks for everyone's comments so far! Your feedback is awesome!