A/N: I am so sorry for making everyone wait so long for the final chapter. Real life got in the way like no other, anything that could've happened, happened, and I found myself with hardly any free time or free time with no access to a computer. So I apologize. But here it is, extra long, so I hope you all enjoy! =)
Chapter 7
Ron couldn't believe it had worked. It had actually worked. Of course some of the logistics had been trickier than he'd expected. Mainly, getting Crabbe and Goyle away from Malfoy and getting them to agree. Hermione had suggested that Ron be the one to talk to Crabbe and Goyle because he was the only pureblood out of the three of them. He'd quickly reminded her that being a pureblood didn't count because he was still a Weasley, but Hermione had ignored him. Finally he'd been forced to agree.
Getting Malfoy away from Crabbe and Goyle had been Hermione's job. She'd used her prefect status to confront him about patrol times and duties. She accused him of switching patrol duties with others so that he wouldn't have to patrol for a whole three months. Of course he denied it and Hermione demanded they take it to a teacher or the headmaster. Malfoy had quickly followed her, arguing the whole way, in an attempt to keep himself out of trouble.
This had left Crabbe and Goyle alone in the corridor by themselves, giving Ron his opportunity. Harry was there too, under the invisibility cloak just in case Crabbe and Goyle decided to ignore Ron and try and use him as a punching bag instead.
Ron had approached them cautiously, a box of chocolate frogs in each hand as a bribe. The chocolate had caught their attention more than anything and they agreed to listen to his idea. Convincing them to help actually hadn't been as hard as Ron had anticipated. They were both teenage boys after all and Slytherins to boot.
They hadn't intended on Hannah being there and not letting Lavender leave, but she had been an advocate of the rumor and Hermione still hadn't forgiven her for getting her in trouble with Professor Sprout, so therefore she was quickly included. It was lucky that Crabbe and Goyle never went anywhere without the other, so they were easily located when they discovered that slight change in plans.
They also made liberal use of the invisibility cloak, although none of them trusted Crabbe and Goyle with it alone, so they employed Neville to help. Ron handed the cloak off to Neville behind the bookshelves and he waited there until he saw Ron, Seamus, Lavender, and Hannah all leave the library together. Then Neville went to get Harry and Hermione and then used it to get Crabbe and Goyle into the rooms and get Seamus and Ron out undetected.
The switch was made easily enough. Get both girls in dark rooms, move away from them for a second, slip one guy in as the other guy slips out, get out as fast as possible, and there it was, done. Colin and Dennis were always eager to take pictures anyway so getting them there had been simple.
Ron just couldn't believe it had all come together like it had. He was definitely going to have to have a talk with Harry and Hermione about that little show of theirs though. But for now he had a meal to get to, he felt like he absolutely deserved it.
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Harry was still slightly angry with Neville when he and Hermione made their way into the Great Hall. Hermione was thrilled that their plan had been a success and was grinning ear to ear as she plopped down next to Harry and started piling food onto her plate. Now of course Harry was glad that their plan had worked as well. But he couldn't help his mood from being a little bit dampened by their interruption in the library. It was just his luck really.
"Harry, could you see if there are any more potatoes?" Neville asked him politely.
"I dunno Neville, maybe you could pop your head into the kitchens and interrupt the house elves to see. Then you could ruin all their fun as well." He hadn't meant to say it, he really hadn't. It wasn't even really Neville's fault, he just had bad timing. But why oh why did he have to have bad timing today. Of all the inopportune moments-
Hermione caught his hidden meaning and annoyance first, and choked on her pumpkin juice in the process.
Neville looked frightened and Ron gave him a confused look.
Hermione recovered quickly and gave Harry a stern look. "Harry, be nice. Neville, here," she said passing him the bowl of potatoes.
Harry just pouted.
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Since it was a Saturday, after lunch Harry and Ron went outside to play a pick-up game of Quidditch while Hermione went off in search of the Creevey brothers to see how the pictures were coming.
By the time the boys got back into the castle there were copies of the pictures everywhere. The picture sequence went from Lavender and Crabbe kissing, to Lavender pulling away, to Lavender screaming, to Lavender and Crabbe kissing again. There were fewer pictures of Hannah and Goyle, but they could be found.
Peeves had his own personal stack of them that he scattered liberally throughout the school; he'd even made up a song to go with them, using language that would make even a few of the seventh years blush.
Unsurprisingly, Lavender and Hannah were nowhere to be found.
On their way up to the Gryffindor tower the boys were stopped by Luna Lovegood. They both began to greet her when she cut in abruptly. "So I heard you made out with Hermione." She said simply to Harry.
Harry blanched. "Er…"
"So it is true. I going to assume this means that things have ended between she and you then, no?" she asked, now looking at Ron.
Ron looked at her wide-eyed. "Er…"
"Good, good. Congratulations then, Harry. I always thought you and Hermione would make a wonderful couple." She smiled dreamily.
"Um…thanks?"
She nodded. "Oh, and Ronald?"
"Yes?"
"I wouldn't worry about things too much. I'm sure there's a much better girl out there for you…" she said dreamily, giving him a shy smile. She then turned and started to walk away. "Goodbye boys." She called, waving absently as she disappeared down the corridor.
They waited until she was safely out of ear shot before they both turned to each other. "That was weird." They both said at once.
"Yeah, weird," Ron continued. "And what do you think she meant by that whole `I'm sure there's a much better girl out there for you' stuff? Does it look like I need a pity party?"
Harry laughed. "Maybe she just wants to be that other girl." He suggested.
Ron snorted. "Yeah right."
Harry just shrugged.
"And what's this stuff about you and Hermione being a couple now?" Ron demanded suddenly.
"I have no idea." Harry said honestly.
Ron narrowed his eyes at that. "What, so you're just gunna snog her and then forget about her?"
Harry looked startled. "What? Of course not!"
Ron crossed his arms over his chest. "Then what are you going to do?"
Harry was still in shock from Ron's sudden change in behavior that he just stood there, no knowing what to say. "Er…"
Ron drew himself up to his full height and poked a finger at Harry's chest. "I'll tell you what you're going to do, Potter. You're going to talk to her, figure out what it is she thinks and what she wants, and then you're going to go along with it, whatever it is. Because best mate or not, if you hurt her, I'll be forced to kick your arse."
Harry hated to admit it, but with Ron being at least a head taller than him, looking accusatory, and sounding very serious; he was actually rather intimidating. Of course he'd eat his firebolt before he'd tell Ron so.
Then, as suddenly as he'd become serious, Ron's demeanor changed again. He relaxed a bit, allowing a grin to spread across his features and he gave Harry a friendly slap on the back. "Well now, with all that out of the way, let's get out of here, I'm pretty sure we missed dinner and I'm starving."
Harry just nodded absently as they made their way to the kitchens, wondering what exactly had just happened there.
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Ron had raided the kitchens that night and Dean and Seamus had brought out their private stash of firewhiskey. "Tonight," Ron declared. "We are going to celebrate."
And celebrate they did.
Soon the entire common room from fourth years up were immensely enjoying themselves.
Neville somehow got himself roped into a drinking game with Dean and Seamus. Hermione decided to "watch" and Harry and Ron joined for moral support.
By her fifth shot of firewhiskey, Hermione declared the game silly and pointless. By her ninth shot she started giggling loudly. By her eleventh shot she said she was done playing. By her thirteenth shot she finally got up and stumbled her way over to the couch on front of the fireplace, taking several bottles of butterbeer with her.
After his fifteenth shot, Harry followed her. Of course fifteen shots in the body of someone who's never even tried firewhiskey before can cause a simple thing such as walking to become a much more difficult feat. Instead of casually plopping down beside her on the couch, Harry tripped on the rug and ended up landing on top of her, face first in her chest, again.
Hermione just giggled and patted his head. "Silly Harry." She said in a sing-song voice.
Harry was finding it hard to move, especially considering the fact that he really didn't want to.
After a few minutes Hermione shook him roughly. "Oh come on now, don't tell me you fell asleep again. I am not a human pillow you know."
Harry just laughed and lifted his head. "You're comfortable enough to be one." He said with a smile before getting up and throwing himself on the other side of her on the couch.
Hermione smiled. "If you say so Harry." She replied, taking another swig of her butterbeer.
"Hermione Granger," Harry admonished good-naturedly. "I don't believe I have ever been privy to witness you drink so much before."
Hermione shrugged, looking thoughtful. "Perhaps not…but we're celebrating, aren't we?" She turned to him with a brilliant smile.
Harry returned her smile with one of his own. "That we are."
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments.
Finally Harry broke the silence. "Er, Hermione?" he questioned.
"Yes, Harry?"
"About what happened in the library earlier, between the two of us…"
"Yes?"
"Er, well I was just kinda wondering, what does it mean?"
Hermione cocked her head to the side and looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean `what does it mean'?"
"Well, I mean what does it mean about us? Are things different now?"
"Do you want them to be?" she responded.
He considered it for a moment. "Do you?"
She hesitated. "I dunno Harry. I can't honestly say that the thought has never crossed my mind, but I certainly value our friendship too much to do anything that might ruin it."
Harry thought for a moment. "Do you really think it would? Honestly? You're my best friend, Hermione, you already mean a lot to me. If we were to try something and have it not work out in the end I don't think I could just shut you out of my life after that. You're too important to me for that. I need you too much." Harry paused as a thought crossed his mind. "Would you? I mean would you shut me out of your life if things didn't work out?"
"No! Of course not, you're a big part of my life too, Harry, I couldn't just forget about you like that."
Harry nodded. "Good."
Hermione laughed and took another drink of her butterbeer.
Harry casually took the bottle out of her hand. "I think you've had quite enough for one night, my dear."
Hermione pouted. "And what makes you tink that?"
Harry laughed. "Well for one, the fact that you just said `tink' instead of `think'." He teased.
Hermione frowned. "I did not."
"Yes you did."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did no-oh this is so immature!"
"You started it."
"I did not."
"Did too."
"Did-Harry!" she screeched, hitting him lightly in the arm. "Stop it." She commanded.
Harry was laughing too hard to continue. Finally he controlled himself enough to get out a simple, "Fine."
"Thank you." She huffed.
Harry couldn't help but smile at her stubbornness. "So does this mean that we're…"
"Dating? Yes, I think so."
"You think?"
"I know."
"Okay." Harry relaxed a little and settled more into the couch. He soon realized just how close he and Hermione were sitting. But that was okay now, because they were…a couple? Harry soon realized something else. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now. "Uh, Hermione?"
"Yes Harry?"
"What do we do now?" he asked shyly.
Hermione grinned. "Well you could always kiss me again if you'd like."
"Oh, okay." He moved closer to her, tilting his head as their lips softly met for the second time that day. They hadn't gotten very far into the kiss before they were interrupted by catcalls from across the room where Dean, Neville, Seamus and Ron were sitting. Harry reluctantly pulled away and blushed slightly. "Sorry, I forgot there were still other people in the room."
Hermione laughed. "You have nothing to apologize for. I asked for the kiss, remember? Besides, they'd have found out soon enough anyway." She told him, glancing over at the loud group of boys. "Although I do wish they weren't so crude about it." She glared over at them before making a rude and very un-Hermione-like gesture back.
She then turned to Harry again, a mischievous smile on her face. She grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled him towards her for a very hot and intense kiss, which soon turned into a very heavy snogging session that had them not only forgetting the other people in the room, but everything else around them as well.
Oh yes, she'd had way too much to drink that night.
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Harry woke up the next morning with his head pounding and his tongue and throat feeling like sandpaper. Even with his eyes still closed he was still convinced that it was way too bright in the room and he felt like hexing whoever it was who decided to open the curtains. He promptly decided to never drink again. Or, at least not until the next professional Quidditch match.
He started to turn on his side and disappear under his covers for the next few hours but he soon found that something was on his chest, keeping him from moving. He opened his eyes to just slivers and still groaned at the light. Once he was able to let his eyes adjust he looked down to see a large amount of bushy brown hair obscuring his vision. He used his free hand to move away most of the hair until he finally saw Hermione's face, sleeping peacefully on top of his chest.
Hermione? What was she doing here? Harry couldn't remember going up to his dormitory last night, much less bringing her with him. Of course then again, he couldn't remember much about last night at all.
Harry rose his head up as much as he dared with the pounding in his head and looked around to see if anyone else was up yet. Instead of his dormitory, he was greeted with the sight of a very trashed Gryffindor Common Room.
The first person he noticed was Ron, passed out by the fireplace. It looked like someone had been nice enough to cover him with a blanket of some sort. Wait a minute, that's not a blanket, it looked like…a cape? Harry shook his head in confusion, and then winced at the pain it caused. He'd worry about Ron's clothing situation later.
Glancing around the rest of the room Harry found many other people passed out in various places of the common room as well. Dean and Ginny were passed out together on the top of one of the study tables in a quite compromising position. Harry hoped that they woke up before Ron did. He didn't think he could handle the yelling quite yet.
Seamus Finnagin ended up passed out in a corner cuddling an empty bottle of firewhiskey. While Neville Longbottom was passed out under a different study table with…Parvati Patil! Well that was unexpected. Go Neville.
There were several other students from different years passed out in random places on the floor as well. Harry hoped Professor McGonagall didn't decide to make a surprise visit to the common room this afternoon.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts as Hermione stirred and tried to bury her head into his chest. "Close the drapes." She mumbled unintelligently.
Harry smiled. "There are no drapes."
Hermione's brow creased and she tilted her head up to look at him through squinting eyes. "Harry?"
"Yes?"
"Close the drapes." She mumbled again before putting her head back down again.
Now under any other occasion Harry would have let her go back to sleep, but right now his left arm was tingling with that half asleep half awake sensation and he really had to pee. So she needed to get up. "Hermione."
No response.
"Hermione." He said louder.
No response.
"Hermione!"
Ron and a few other people in the room groaned in complaint to his yelling, but Hermione didn't move an inch.
"Hermione! Hurry, get up! You're going to be late for class!"
That woke her up.
She literally jumped up off of him into a sitting position, looking around her wildly. "What? Class? When?"
Harry laughed. "Tomorrow, luv, tomorrow."
Hermione glared at him. "Damn you Harry," she groaned putting her head in her hands. "My head hurts so badly, and sudden movements don't help at all."
Harry finally sat up properly, trying to shake some feeling into his arm. "Sorry, but my arm was going numb."
Hermione just muttered something darkly under her breath. She was sitting up with her knees raised and her head resting on her knees while she massaged her temples with her forefingers.
Harry shrugged and stood up. "I'll be back." He told her kissing her lightly on the forehead.
When Harry returned Hermione was in the same position he'd left her, but there were other people up as well. Ron was sitting cross-legged on the floor wearing practically nothing at all; although he seemed perfectly comfortable in such. His hair was flat on one side and sticking straight up on the other, his eyes were red and he looked like he could use a few more days of sleep, but he was awake nonetheless.
Dean and Seamus were awake as well. Ginny must have snuck off to her room because Harry didn't see her anywhere. And Neville and Parvati were still asleep under their table. Dean looked relatively normal, his eyes were a little red and his hair and clothes were mussed from sleep, but other than that he looked fine. Seamus was in much the same condition. It gave Harry the sneaking suspicion that nights like last night were commonplace for the two.
There were others still sprawled out on the floor, and Harry had to step over Colin Creevey to get back to his place on the couch. However, the common room seemed a little less full than when he'd woken up.
Hermione's hair was a bushy as ever and although her eyes weren't red, she looked very tired. It almost made him feel bad for waking her, almost. She and Ron were talking, basically meaning the quieter more subdued version of their usual bickering. Apparently they just didn't have the energy to do it full out this morning.
"Well you see, Ron, when one has eight butterbeers, ninteen shots of firewhiskey, and five of those merlin-knows-whats-" Hermione was saying in a tone that clearly showed her mood.
"They're called Long Island Iced Teas, Hermione." Ron supplied wisely, not the least fazed by her obvious annoyance.
"Anyway," Hermione continued slightly louder than before. "After all of that, Ronald, said person may feel the inexplicable desire to RUN AROUND THE COMMON ROOM WEARING NOTHING BUT THEIR SUPERMAN UNDERWEAR AND A RED CAPE!"
"Really? I did that? Awesome!" Ron paused, looking thoughtful. "Where'd I get the underwear?"
"You transfigured one of the house-elf hats Hermione knits into a pair." Dean told him helpfully.
"And you borrowed the cape from Colin." Seamus added.
"Oh. I did transfiguration when I was drunk? Wow. Double awesome!"
"Oh yes, absolutely marvelous." Hermione muttered darkly still rubbing her temples.
"I think it really says something about a person when they can do something better drunk than they can when their sober." Dean said seriously.
"Definitely. I guess this means you're destined to become an alcoholic, Ron. Congratulations." Seamus told him, slapping Ron on the back.
Hermione huffed in annoyance. "It's like their welcoming him into the club or something." She told Harry as he sat beside her.
"Maybe they are." Harry replied.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "We're way too young to be starting a habit like that."
"As I recall you were quite sloushed yourself last night." Harry teased.
"Ugh, don't remind me. I won't be doing that again for a long time."
Harry laughed.
"How do you not have a monstrous headache like me? We drank close to the same amount." She whinged.
Harry shrugged. "I've been up a little longer than you have."
"I guess so," she agreed. "That and you weren't woken up quite so abruptly either." She shot him a look that clearly said she hadn't forgiven him for that yet.
Harry laughed again. "You're right, but I just couldn't resist such a perfect opportunity."
Hermione groaned. "My head is so fuzzy. It's like I can't get my thoughts straight. And I keep trying to remember everything that happened last night and all I get are bits and pieces."
"You don't remember last night?" Harry asked, suddenly a bit worried. His memory had come back pretty quickly after he'd taken in his surroundings.
"Oh I remember a lot. I remember our talk and everything." She gave him a shy smile at that. "And I remember Ron running around the room like some type of streaker." She added, turning and giving Ron a sharp look.
"Hey! I was covered." Ron protested.
"Barely." She responded before turning back to Harry. "But some other stuff I think I'm a little fuzzy on still."
"Having trouble remembering things?" Seamus asked.
Hermione nodded, wincing at the motion. "A little."
Seamus nodded in sympathy. "Yeah that happens sometimes, especially if you're a beginner. Don't worry about it though; the night will come back to you."
"I hope you didn't forget everything." Dean said with a grin. "You and Harry gave us all quite a show last night."
Hermione shot him a glare. "Oh I think you and Ginny were definitely beating us when it came to giving a show." She replied sweetly.
Ron instantly turned on Dean. "What did you do with my sister?" He demanded loudly.
"Nothing! I swear; nothing she didn't want at least." Dean turned to Hermione. "And I thought you didn't remember anything!"
"I said I didn't remember everything." She replied with a grin.
"What did you do to my sister?" Ron repeated angrily.
"Oh come on now, Ron, we all know Ginny's a big girl now, she can make her own decisions." Seamus chimed in supporting his friend.
Ron just turned on him instead. "What do you mean `we'? What have you done with my sister?"
Seamus went wide-eyed and put up his hands in surrender. "Nothing, I've never touched her. I was just saying we all know she's getting older. That's it."
Ron was just about to respond when he was interrupted by someone on the floor suddenly bellowed, "ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP HERE! SO CAN IT!"
Everyone turned and stared at the couple under the study table.
"Neville?" Harry questioned in surprise.
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
"Okay then." Harry whispered looking at the others in amazement.
Everyone else was just as surprised. Neville was usually so mild-mannered and quiet. They'd rarely ever heard him raise his voice, let alone yell across the entire common room. Apparently a hang-over could do a lot to a person.
"Alright," Hermione said breaking the momentarily silence. "That settles it. This headache is too much. I'm going to make Madam Pomprey give me the strongest headache potion she's got, even if I have to do it at wand point." And with that she got up, gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek, and stalked out of the portrait hole.
"How long do you think it'll take her to realize that she's not wearing that anymore?" Ron asked quietly, motioning to the now empty spot next to Harry where stuck in between the couch cushions was laying Hermione's white lacy bra.
"I'm sure she'll remember it sooner or later." Dean said with a mischievous grin.
"That certainly was a wild party." Harry commented.
"Definitely. We've gotta have another one again soon, not too soon mind you, but soon." Seamus agreed.
`So much for never drinking again.' Harry thought. `I can only imagine the celebration we have after we get that reporter. Now that's something to look forward to.'
The End.
A/N: Originally I was going to have Dean either put Hermione's bra on the doorknob of Snape's classroom so that they would all find it while waiting for Snape to get there, but she wouldn't be able to take it off because then people would know it was hers. OR I was going to have him attach it to a filiburster firework and have him set it off in the Great Hall. And then I'd have her retailiate. Now while that sounded fun to write, it had absolutely nothing to do with the story and many of you would probably be going "WTF?!?" So I refrained, but I still had to tell you all about it.
A/N 2: As always, tell me what you think! =)
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