A/N: Well, here it is: part 2. I really appreciate the great reviews and I wasn't expecting there to be a demand for me to continue the story. In an attempt to please you all, I started working on this chapter almost immediately after I agreed to continue the story. Well without further ado, here you go. I hope you enjoy it.
A/N 2: Oh yes I also raised the rating to PG-13, though it'll probably be raised again in the next chapter or later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All night, Harry could not help but dream about the kiss he shared with Hermione only hours earlier; his subconscious pleasantly forcing him to relive every moment just the way it had happened. This was one of the few nights where Harry had actually gotten a decent sleep. But then suddenly, his wonderful dreams were interrupted when a hand started to tug and shake him from his sleep. Harry groaned rather grumpily as he returned to the conscious world, only to see a dark figure looming above him. It was still night time, but Harry could see who it was clearly even without his glasses.
"Seamus? What time is it?" muttered Harry in a groggy voice.
"Dunno. Reckon it's about three or four in the morning." Seamus said with excitement.
"Four in the morning?!" Harry exclaimed before Seamus promptly "shushed" him.
"What are you playing at?" Harry whispered aggressively.
Seamus just smiled mischievously. Fred and George had mastered that look, and if Seamus was making that face, then something was up. Just then, Seamus held up a familiar piece of parchment in front of Harry's. It was the letter he had written to Hermione.
Bugger! Hermione left it in the Common Room!
"Give me that!" Harry demanded as he tried to snatch it away.
Seamus of course simply held the parchment over his own head, his mouth contorted with a grin of utmost glee.
"So that article was right after all wasn't it? Why'd you tell everyone it wasn't true? No one would have minded if you were dating Hermione, though it's an unusual pick for you. I always thought you'd be smitten with one of the other girls. Then again you're always with her and Ron, so I reckon it makes sense. " Seamus inquired rather smugly.
Harry figured there was no point in lying, since Seamus Finnigan had the proof in his hand, so he answered truthfully.
"I wasn't lying about the article. It wasn't true, at least then it wasn't. It kind of just happened during dinner. Seamus, you can't tell anyone about this! I don't want the whole school making a fuss over it. I'm not ready for everyone to know yet." Harry implored.
"Well I think it's a bit late for that." Seamus replied as Harry felt like a stone dropped down his throat as he gulped.
"Oh no…"
"No need to panic. Only Fred and George know. They were the ones that found it and showed it to me. But I don't think they'll be telling anyone, at least not at the moment. But just for the record Harry, I don't think it's a good idea to be leaving love letters lying around." Seamus reassured him.
"Thank god…" Harry said breathlessly with relief. But just then he remembered the person he really didn't want to know: Ron.
"Does Ron know?"
"I already told you Harry, only Fred, George, and myself know about it. But enough about that, what happened?! Was it good? Did you snog? How was she? Is she a good kisser?" Seamus questioned at the speed of light.
"That's not your business Seamus!"
"Oh so I guess she was a bad kisser then?"
"No! Er - listen, she's not a bad kisser. But that doesn't matter right now. Seamus, promise me you won't tell anyone!"
"Hush up now before you wake up everyone you're trying to hide it from! Don't worry about it, I'm not going to tell anyone." Seamus said dismissively.
At that, Seamus left Harry's bedside sniggering as he went to his own bed. Seamus left the letter with Harry, who quickly crumpled up the letter and tossed it under his bed. Harry spent the better part of an hour terrified that Fred and George might say something. They'd do just about anything for a good laugh he figured, but would they go and tell everyone his business? Fred and George were pranksters, but they never hassled their own friends. They played practical jokes; they did not spread around gossip. With that thought, Harry felt reassured and allowed himself to go back to sleep.
The next morning, Harry woke up with no recollection of the night before until he put his glasses on. It was then that he realized that everything had been real, that he and Hermione really were an item…and that three other people knew about it. His fear of people starting to find out not withstanding, Harry wanted to see Hermione. Suddenly, thinking of her started to put things into perspective. Harry then got dressed like a ten year old on Christmas morning, before hurrying down to the Common Room to see Hermione there waiting for him. Some other Gryffindors were still loitering around, while some had already gone down to the Great Hall. Harry could not help but smile when he saw Hermione, who was already beaming at him. Without a word, Harry walked down the steps as some boys hurried down past him from the dorms and walked straight up to Hermione. Without a word, Hermione took his hand, fingers interlaced, and walked with him down toward the Great Hall. Harry was a bit worried that others would notice, but they walked close enough so that their hands were somewhat concealed by their loose robes. They walked leisurely toward the Great Hall as everyone else sped ahead of them. But as they were just one hall away from it, Fred and George came out of nowhere eyeing Harry and Hermione with looks of glee. Hermione's eyes went wide and she quickly let go of Harry's hand and took a step away from him.
"Well now, you two wouldn't be hiding anything from us now would you?" said Fred.
Seeing it pointless to maintain the charade in front of these two, Harry leaned over and quietly spoke to Hermione,
"They know."
Hermione's eyes then got even wider with shock and she looked at Harry with a concerned look.
"You didn't - "
"No I didn't tell them. They found my letter in the Common Room." Harry cut her off.
Hermione's cheeks then turned almost as red as a Weasely's hair when she realized that she had been the one who had left the letter there.
"Well now that that's settled, Fred and I have a proposition for you Hermione!" George started, as they began to finish each other's sentences.
"Me and George have decided that as dearest friends, we should dedicate some of our talents to helping out Hogwart's newest couple!"
"We think it's vital to the proper development of a mature and intimate relationship - "
"And could serve to provide you with many nights of friendly fun!"
"It'll take us a short time to make them, and we hear that Muggles use similar devices!"
"It'll be fun for you Hermione, and good for you too Harry!"
"Me and Fred reckon you're old enough to start using them anyway."
"And what's that exactly?" Hermione asked the twins with a dubious expression.
"Chocolate Flavored Panties!" exclaimed the twins in unison.
Harry's eyes shot wide with surprise, and he felt his cheeks warm up as he felt extremely embarrassed.
"It's not like that!" Harry asserted, before noticing that Hermione looked somewhat disappointed.
Knowing that didn't come out right, Harry quickly corrected himself.
"Eh - not that I don't want it to be…" Harry added sheepishly.
Fred and George merely smirked, before heading off toward the Great Hall. But before they disappeared from sight, Fred turned around.
"You know how to find us when you change your mind!" Fred said before scrambling off with his twin.
Feeling a bit awkward, Hermione blushed even more before walking to breakfast with Harry. Ron was already there, wolfing down some Honey flavored gruel.
"Bout time you two turned up! I almost thought you were going to skip breakfast."
"Um, everyone's favorite twins held us up." Harry responded.
"Join the club." Ron replied.
Trying to pretend that everything was normal, Hermione and Harry tried to remain focused on their food, though they couldn't help but look at each other every now and then. Apparently Ron was noticing, because he had a perplexed expression every they did it. Halfway into breakfast, owls came fluttering into deliver mail. As Hedwig dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet, Harry couldn't help but notice an article titled Dumbledore's Giant Mistake. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all read on with horror as Rita Skeeter had written an expose` discussing Hagrid being a half giant.
"This is terrible!" said Hermione.
"Great, now everyone's going to start making a fuss about Hagrid teaching their children and try to get him sacked!" Ron added.
"Dumbledore wouldn't sack Hagrid." Harry asserted.
That day, they had found that Professor Grubby-Plank was standing in for Hagrid, who confined himself to his hut and wouldn't speak to anyone. Malfoy and his cronies were thrilled of course, but Harry was absolutely furious. Later that day at lunch, Harry approached Hermione right after Potions.
"Hermione…I need to talk to you." Harry said.
"What about?" she asked, slightly smiling at him.
"It's about Ron. I think we need to tell him about us. We've been keeping it from him all day, and the more we hide it from him the worse it'll be when he finds out."
Harry was a bit concerned, as he didn't talk to Harry for ages when he got into the Triwizard Tournaments, and this might be a tad bit too much. But either way, he had to tell him. Hermione's expression quickly went serious as she started to speak.
"Don't worry about it Harry. I know you're worried that he'll be angry, but he'll be fine. I'll tell him."
With that, Hermione leaned forward and gave Harry his first kiss of the day before turning around to see Snape eyeing them dangerously.
"Ten points from Gryffindor Ms.Granger. You will not flaunt your sexual urges about Hogwarts, especially outside of my classroom." Snape said coldly before walking off as his black cloak swayed behind him.
To make matters worse, Ron had been standing right behind Snape and had witnessed their kiss. Ron looked furious, and then quickly stormed off toward the library.
"Ron!" Harry called after him, but Ron did not answer or even stop walking.
"Harry, go to lunch. I'll go speak to him." Hermione quickly said before clutching Harry's hand and then going after Ron.
While Harry waited in the Great Hall, his appetite had left him as he hoped Hermione could get through to Ron. After about ten minutes, Hermione came back and sat down next to Harry, clearly a bit upset.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"Ron doesn't want to talk to me. He says what we do is our business and so he doesn't need to hear excuses." Hermione replied sadly.
"I'll talk to him. I'm tired of this…" Harry said before quickly leaving the table and heading to the library.
When he got there, Ron was sitting up against one of the windows with his arms crossed.
"Ron, what's your problem? We just made up and now you're acting like this again!" Harry said aggressively.
"I don't care what you and Hermione do Harry. Go on and get married for all I care, I want to be left alone right now." Ron replied lazily.
"No Ron, we're going to talk about this. Listen, me and Hermione got together just last night. We were about to tell you at lunch."
"That went well didn't it? I guess you did tell me about it with that lovely little lip lock outside of Snape's class. Look, I don't wanna talk about this anymore." Ron said before getting up and brushing past Harry without looking at him.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, causing Ron to stop dead in his tracks and give Harry a non-descript look.
"What is your problem with this? I thought you'd be happy! Why are you so against me and Hermione being together?" Harry exclaimed.
Ron simply sighed, taking a slight gulp of irritation as his eyes appeared somewhat bloodshot. His eyes even seemed a little glossed, as if he were about to weep or something.
"I like Hermione…I liked Hermione a lot Harry. But as always, you've beaten me to it. Whatever, I'm used to this. I don't care anymore. Just make Hermione happy, since I clearly won't be." Ron said quietly before leaving the library.
"Great…" Harry said in exasperation.
Ron didn't speak to Harry at all that day. He didn't seem angry, just disinterested. In Divination he simply laid back in general boredom without muttering a sound. Hermione's logic was that Ron just needed some time to come to terms with it, but that he'd come around. Harry was aware of this, but he didn't like not having his best friend around. Of all people, Harry wanted Ron to approve of this the most. Meanwhile, the rest of the school still didn't know about Harry and Hermione's relationship. Regardless of how long it took Ron to come around, Harry wasn't going to let anyone interfere with his relationship, and he found himself thinking about the fact that the most affection he had gotten from Hermione that day was one kiss and a lot of hand holding. Although day one of their relationship was somewhat spoiled, he was going to spend as much time as he could with her for the rest of the evening. During dinner that night, Harry and Hermione just so happened to not have an appetite…an appetite for food that is. The Harry was on top of Hermione on one of the Common Room couches kissing her passionately. He had worked up a lot of tension that day not being able to express his affection for Hermione, so they had taken this opportunity. As they kissed, Harry started to let his hands wander, cupping her face and running through her hair as Hermione rubbed his back and held the back of his head. Getting a little more bold, Harry decided to do something he'd never thought he'd ever do with anyone let alone Hermione: he slowly moved his right hand down to feel the outside of Hermione's thigh, having slipped his hand under her school skirt.
"Harry!" Hermione whispered in surprise.
"I- I'm sorry Hermione." Harry said weakly.
"No, it's alright. I liked it. I've just…never had anyone do that to me before, especially you Harry. I still haven't gotten used to the fact that we're together. We've been friends for so long, and now…you're lying right on top of me…" Hermione said with a blush.
Harry couldn't help but smile, as Hermione ran her hand over his forehead, grazing his scar with the tips of her fingers as she gazed into his green emeralds.
"I've never told you this before Harry, but you've got beautiful eyes."
"I don't know where to start about you Hermione."
Hermione had nothing to say to this, and tilted her head up in order for her lips to meet Harry's again. As it was with Hermione, Harry hadn't gotten used to this either. Awkward as it was to be kissing his best friend for four years, it felt damn good. It felt right. After they broke the kiss, Harry spoke again.
"Come with me to Hogsmeade this weekend. Just the two of us." he said.
"Haven't you gotten to be working on that egg riddle?" Hermione replied.
"Er - well…I've almost gotten it figured out." Harry lied.
"Sorry Harry, but I won't to Hogsmeade with you until you finish with the golden egg. I can't have you failing the second task because of me." Hermione said with authority.
Grinning almost mischievously, Harry quickly came up with what he thought was a genius idea.
"I'll finish the golden egg clue…but only if you'll help me..." Harry replied.
Hermione wasn't a supporter of cheating, but since Cedric had already helped Harry and vice versa, she decided to do it.
"Okay…" Hermione replied.
A huge smile forming on his lips, Harry went on to continue kissing Hermione. Little did Hermione know that Harry was going to need to use a bathtub to sort the riddle out…
-->