Disclamer: I don't own the bachelor or Harry potter. They belong to ABC and J.K Rowling.
A/N: So sorry for taking so long to update but I had a lot of personal stuff happen lately and finals are coming up. I rewrote this chapter a few times because I wasn't that happy with it but I hope you enjoy this chapter. Hopefully I depicted paintball accurately but if not then sorry because I don't really play the game so some things might be off. Please Review and let me know what you think!
Chapter 8:
The next morning Hermione got up feeling pretty happy about her "date" last night. It had felt really great to be able to conquer her fear of heights. It was something she would like to do again sometime later on with Harry. She had decided last night that she would spend most of her day before the rose ceremony to find out more about Allie. She wanted to know as much as she could about her before making her final decision of what she was like. Her gut had told her many times that there was something strange or mysterious about her and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. First thing she had to do was to find as much information out about Allie as she could. It was a good thing that she had brought her computer with her. But first she needed to find out approximately where she lived and her full name. She knew she could get that information from the producers but it would be a little bit risky to do that. She wanted to see what some of the other girls knew about her. She would have to ask around but she couldn't seem too nosy or the others could get suspicious. She got up quickly and decided to take a walk outside for some fresh air.
As she walked outside, she smiled as she took in the beautiful sky and fresh air. It felt good to be outside and helped her relax just a little bit. She took a quick turn around the grounds before heading back to the house. She then heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw the person she wanted to see the least. She put on a bright smile and said, "Good morning Allie."
"It is a lovely morning for a jog isn't it?" Allie replied in a cheerful tone.
"I agree, do you jog every morning back home?" Hermione inquired innocently.
"Back in Wisconsin, I would try to jog at least three times a week but I lived in a small town so there wasn't much to see," Allie answered back.
Hermione nodded and proceeded to continue walking.
"You lived in London right?" Allie asked.
"Yes, I spent time there" Hermione replied.
"Anything interesting happen while you were there?" Allie asked.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"Did anything unexplained or out of the ordinary happen to you?" Allie replied after a thought.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. I never did have good luck," Hermione answered quickly.
"Are you sure?" Allie pressed.
"Yes I'm sure," Hermione said firmly quickly looking away.
"See you back at the house then," Allie called as she jogged away.
'I certainly hope not. I can't check up on you with you looking over my shoulder. At least I know where to start checking,' Hermione thought to herself. She got back to the house about 10 minutes later.
"Morning," Chloe greeted her.
"Morning," Hermione greeted back with a grin.
"Want some juice?" Christine asked holding up a glass.
"Sure," Hermione replied with a smile.
"How was your jog?" Jennifer asked.
"It was nice. Did Allie mention it?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Chloe confirmed.
"Some of us are heading out for a swim. You guys want to join us?" Lisa asked.
"We'll be there," Chloe and Jennifer replied.
Christine nodded but Hermione said, "I'm not in a mood for a swim"
"Okay, if you change your mind, we'll be right outside," Lisa answered.
As most of the woman went upstairs to change, Hermione went upstairs to grab her portable computer to do some research. She looked around to make sure that nobody else was around before she entered her search. She was looking for any person named Allie Renshaw in the Wisconsin area. Over the next couple of hours she began her search. She got quite a few hits on the last name Renshaw. However, there were only a few of them named Allie. She found a few Allies to find out about what areas they lived in. She then restricted her search to these areas to see what kind of information she could find on the Allie that lived there. So far she couldn't find much information on any of the Allie Renshaws in the area. She then decided to go on these alumni websites to ask if other people knew any Allie Renshaws. She was able to locate one of the Allie's listed and found out that she was definitely not the Allie she was looking for. Hermione then put down the screen of her computer and hid it away quickly as she went to the bathroom.
A couple of minutes later she heard Lisa and Lucy head back inside. Chloe, Jennifer, Christine, Sue and Allie soon followed suit.
"You should have joined us Hermione, it was fun," Allie said to her.
"Maybe next time," Hermione replied with a slight smile.
*~*~*~*~
Harry was pacing around his dining room as she thought about having to eliminate three more girls tonight. It was always a hard decision and he knew that he would have to make the right choices. It was hard as usual to eliminate any of them. All of the women were interesting, smart and beautiful. There were a few ladies that he had an incredibly amazing time with as well. His thoughts then turned toward Hermione. Even if she wasn't his best friend, he still believed that he wouldn't have eliminated her from the competition. Now the hard part began, he wanted to think very carefully before making his choice so that he wouldn't be making any mistakes by eliminating the wrong women.
*~*~*~*~
A few hours later she heard a tiny beeping noise and she went to look at her computer and saw that she had received a reply back. They said that they had a couple of classes with her but didn't know her too well. She seemed very quiet and didn't talk to many people. However she had only transferred to the school recently so she didn't know if she had always been that way. In another reply she received back they had mentioned that they didn't know of her specifically but had heard that she was a great person who enjoyed volunteering at soup kitchens, the kennels and the old folks home ever since a few years ago. He hadn't really taken any notice of her being around before.
Hermione took a deep breath as she thought about the information that she had received. She didn't learn much about her besides how great a person she was. Maybe it was time to do some more intense checking up on her. She could ask a friend of hers to check in the police database to see if she had any skeletons in her closet. After making up her mind to do that she instantly felt better and then decided to venture back downstairs to see what the other women were up to.
*~*~*~*~*~
Harry was making his final decisions on who he was going to eliminate tonight, a few minutes before the ceremony was going to take place. A few moments later the knock on the door told him that it was time for him to go to the mansion for the rose ceremony.
Once he arrived there he headed straight outside to where the ceremony to take place and he watched all the women to assemble into their positions. He knew that they were all nervous but they all had smiles pasted on their faces.
Matthew once again gave his speech before the ceremony and lead Harry over to the table of roses that he would hand out the women that remain. Harry grabbed the first rose and called out the first name.
"Christine," He called and then said, "Will you accept this rose?"
"Yes," Christine smiled and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"Chloe," He called next and then continued in this fashion until he reached his second last rose.
"Hermione," He called with a grin looking at her nervous expression and the said, "Will you accept this rose?"
"I would love to," Hermione replied with a smile and a kiss on the cheek.
For his final rose he called out "Allie, will you accept this rose?"
"Yes," Allie replied with a grin and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Those of you who did not receive a rose please take your time to say your good-byes." Matthew said.
Isabelle walked up first and said to Harry, "It just wasn't working out was it?"
"I'm sorry. I really had a great time getting to know you but.." Harry started.
"But you don't think that I'm the one for you," Isabelle finished looking said.
'Yeah" Harry answered.
"I hope that you find her here," Isabelle replied with a forced smile and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away quickly. She then quickly looked back at the remaining women and she swore she saw Allie smirking at her but it was gone in a flash and in its place was a sad smile.
The rest of the women left quickly after giving hugs to a few of the girls. They all left until only Allie, Hermione, Lisa, Chloe, Jennifer, Sue, Christine, Callie and Stephanie remained. They each grabbed a cup of champagne and toasted with Harry to celebrate that they were still there.
*~*~*~*~*~
The next day, all the women remaining were quite happy to see that Isabelle was gone and everybody was in a good mood especially Stephanie. She had the brightest smile on her face. When Hermione woke up she could hear the happy chatter coming from downstairs. She took this opportunity to call her friend who had some contacts in the police force. She was asking her to do a background check on Allie for her. Then she went downstairs to join the others.
"Hello," Allie greeted her cheerfully.
"Good morning," Hermione greeted back.
"It is, isn't it?" Stephanie asked happily.
"She's been like that all morning," Chloe told her.
Hermione just smiled in response.
"The mood of the house is certainly lighter since Isabelle left," Lisa commented.
The rest of the girls just nodded.
Hermione quickly grabbed some breakfast and some juice. They were all chatting away happily. A few minutes later Sue came in carrying a note.
"So, who's it for?" Callie asked.
"Its addressed to you, Hermione, Stephanie, Lisa and Jennifer," Sue replied with a smile.
Stephanie grabbed the card and read out loud:
Dear Callie, Hermione, Stephanie, Lisa and Jennifer,
I hope you've had a good night's rest because you're going to need your strength today. I'll be here later this afternoon to pick you guys up. Be prepared for some messy fun. I'm looking forward to seeing all of you this afternoon.
Harry.
"Messy fun?" Jennifer asked.
"Sounds very intriguing," Callie commented.
"I bet it has to do with paint," Stephanie answered.
"Well, that will be fun but I guess we shouldn't dress too fancy then," Jennifer replied.
"Definitely. I wouldn't want to have to get pain off my clothes. They're like dry clean only," Stephanie replied while quickly heading upstairs.
"I'm sure not all your clothes are dry clean only," Lisa added while rolling her eyes.
"You excited?" Hermione asked Callie and Jennifer.
"Yeah, it's going to be really fun and now that there are only the 4 of us, we'll each get to spend more time with Harry," Callie added.
"Awesome," Jennifer commented.
' It would be nice to spend some one-on-one time with Harry,' Hermione thought to herself with a smile.
*~*~*~
Harry stood outside of the mansion quietly thinking to himself. He was quite excited to see what Hermione thought of this date idea and couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Hermione covered in paint. Hermione would definitely be a fierce competitor and he couldn't wait to see how the others would fare on this date. Harry knew that Callie would probably do well because of her job and aspirations. He was definitley hoping that it would be an interesting afternoon.
Harry walked up to the door and ran the doorbell. In a few moments the door opened and he saw Hermione standing there with a large grin on her face and her hair up in a cute ponytail.
"What are you so happy about?" He inquired.
"I've had a good morning," Hermione replied with an amused smile.
"So it doesn't have anything to do with me huh?" He answered kind of sadly.
"Of course it does, seeing you always brightens up my day. I mean you know it always good to see a friend," She answered quickly.
"I'm glad to see you too," Harry said with a dazzling grin and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Hermione just blushed.
Harry was about to comment as he saw the rest of the women coming down the stairs. They were all dressed casually and looked quite lovely.
"You ladies ready to go?" Harry asked.
"I'm always ready," Stephanie replied with a smile.
"All right then, let's get going," Harry replied opening the door and leading them out to the car.
"So where are heading off to?" Callie inquired.
"We're going to play paintball," Harry answered.
"I love paintball," Callie exclaimed happily.
"I was hoping someone would," Harry answered back with a grin.
"I've heard of it but I've never actually played it before," Stephanie added.
"My friends told me that it was really fun," Lisa added quickly.
"Me either," Jennifer said while Hermione nodded.
"Great," Harry said as they arrived at the field. Some staff members came out and explained the basics to them.
"So how do you guys want to do this? Teams or each separately?" Callie asked.
"Teams. One more experienced player per team. I'll be on Harry's team," Stephanie called out.
"What about you guys?" Callie asked Jennifer and Hermione.
"Teams are fine with me," Hermione replied with a smile.
"Yeah I agree," Lisa answered with a smile.
"I'll be on Callie's team," Hermione called with an evil gleam in her eye.
"So you're going against me aren't you?" Harry asked Hermione raising her eyebrow.
"I guess so," Hermione replied with a slight smile.
"Be prepared to lose," Harry whispered to her.
"We'll see about that… Mr. Potter," Hermione whispered seductively in his ear.
Harry was shocked for a second before regaining his composure and then grabbed Hermione slightly as she was walking away and said, "Not so fast. Were you trying to seduce me?"
"That depends, did you want me to?" Hermione teased back.
'Two can play this game,' Harry thought to himself and said, "What if I said I did?"
Hermione was a little surprised at his response but smiled and replied, "How about we play a little game?"
"What kind of game?" He inquired.
"We make this competition a little more interesting," She replied with a smile.
"Okay, what are the terms?" Harry asked with intrigue.
Before Hermione could answer Stephanie had come up and grabbed Harry's arm and said,
"Come on, they're ready for you,"
"Thanks," He said with a slight smile as he headed back towards the group.
Stephanie waited for a little bit and then turned to Hermione and asked in an angry tone, "What was that?"
"What was what?" Hermione inquired curiously.
"Don't play dumb with me. What were you doing with Harry just now?" Stephanie asked again.
"We were having a private conversation," Hermione answered evenly.
"Who do you think you are?" Stephanie demanded.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked with anger in her voice.
"I mean, what gives you the right to steal him away from the rest of us so that you can have alone time with Harry," Stephanie retorted.
"Like you haven't done that before. I've seen you try to do that many times," Hermione answered back sharply.
"It is part of the show. Besides I've only done that a couple of times because you seemed to have dragged him away again," Stephanie replied.
"So it's part of the show for you but with me it is wrong?" Hermione replied sharply.
"Well I'm just doing what everyone else wants to do but are too nice to do," Stephanie added.
"Like I'm going to believe that. I didn't do anything. Don't blame me just because Harry doesn't like spending time with you, " Hermione answered while rolling her eyes and proceeded to walk away.
Stephanie caught her elbow and spoke in a threatening tone, "I'm only going to say this once so you better listen. Stop monopolizing Harry's time or else."
"Or else what?" Hermione asked.
"I'll just say you'll be sorry. But you doesn't really matter as long as you heed my warning," Stephanie replied and walked back towards the others.
Hermione just shook her head as she walked back slowly towards the group. She wondered what she was going to do. On one hand she shouldn't really worry too much about being kicked off the show because she is the spy and the producers knew that. But she still decided that she would have to be more careful around her from now on.
"So are both teams made up?" Harry asked looking at Hermione.
Hermione and the other girls nodded. Hermione, Callie and Lisa formed one team. Harry, Stephanie and Jennifer formed the other team.
Harry continued and said, "We're playing the flag version of the game. The goal of this game is to capture the other team's flag and return to our base while protecting our own flag. One way of protecting the flag is to get the other team's members out by shooting paint balls at them. Now if one of your team members accidentally shoot at you, you are still out. "
"So we are out if we get hit by a paint ball?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, now if get splattered by paint hitting a tree then you are not considered out," Harry added.
Hermione nodded and they lined up to get their guns with the paintballs, goggles as well as something to wear over their clothes so they don't get their clothes completely dirty.
"Remember it is important to wear your goggles and mask at all times," Harry called out.
"How long are we playing for?" Callie asked.
"The game will last for about 30 minutes," Harry replied.
"Oh, just so everybody knows, you'll not supposed to shoot if you're within 5 ft of a person," Callie added.
"Oh, there will be other people to join our teams. It makes it more fun," Harry said after a thought.
The guns were not too heavy but still a little awkward to hold.
"Is this the right way to hold this?" Lisa asked Harry.
Harry walked on over and carefully observed her hand position and quickly demonstrated the more correct way of holding the gun with his own gun.
"Thanks," Lisa replied with a smile.
"What about me?" Stephanie asked.
Harry walked past Hermione and gave her a smile as Hermione returned the smile as she rolled her eyes over to Stephanie.
Stephanie was holding the gun completely inaccurately.
"No, no don't hold it like that. That would be dangerous," Harry told her and demonstrated on his gun but Stephanie tried to hold it like Harry showed her but for some reason she seemed to be unable to do it accurately so Harry walked closer to her and moved her hands into the correct positions.
"I'm not usually like this but I've never been really comfortable with guns," Stephanie whispered with an embarrassed smile.
Harry smiled and whispered back, "Don't worry about it, It's not a bad thing to be uncomfortable with guns."
Jennifer had walked over to Hermione and asked, "Is this how to hold it?"
Hermione looked at her hands and nodded.
"Good, I was a little worried. Just look at her, she is just acting dumb so that he would come and help her out," Jennifer added nervous as she nodded her head towards Stephanie and Harry.
"I'm sure Harry realizes that," Hermione answered looking down.
"I sure hope so," Jennifer replied.
Harry walked towards them with a smile and asked, "Are you guys ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Callie answered.
Then they separated out into their teams and each team was given time to walk to their home bases on opposite sides of the field. It was woody with many trees that allowed them to hide. Two other people joined their team. One of them was named Phil and the other named Susan. Diana and Kelly joined Harry's team.
"So what is our strategy?" Callie asked.
"I say we knock out Stephanie first," Lisa replied quickly.
"I agree with that," Hermione commented with a smile.
"Okay then that's settled. But who should try and get the flag?" Callie asked.
"How about you? I mean since you have played this game before," Lisa suggested.
"Okay so then I guess you two will try to keep the others away from me in the meantime," Callie answered.
Lisa and Hermione smiled and replied, "Okay."
Susan said, "I'll stay and guard the flag,"
Callie replied, "Sure, Phil why don't you come with us?"
*~*~*~
"What's the game plan?" Harry inquired.
"I say we try and knock out the strongest player which I would think to be Callie," Stephanie suggested.
"Sure," Jennifer replied.
"Okay then its settled then," Harry replied.
"Well on person should stay and guard the flag," Stephanie told Jennifer.
Jennifer rolled her eye and walked away toward the flag.
"What are we going to do?" Stephanie explained.
"Capture the opponents flag," Harry answered with a smile.
*~*~*~
Phil, Callie, Lisa and Hermione were quietly walking around searching for any sign of Stephanie. As they were walking Lisa asked Hermione, "So where did you disappear to?"
"What?" Hermione responded.
"For awhile when we were getting ready to play you and Harry were no where to be seen. You should have seen Stephanie. She looked steamed," Lisa answered.
"She was steamed," Callie added.
"I was just talking with Harry. He had walked on over to ask me a question," Hermione answered quickly.
"Just talking?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, just talking. It was going nicely until Stephanie showed up," Hermione answered.
"What did she say?" Callie asked.
"Let's just say that she wasn't being pleasant," Hermione replied.
"Stephanie is just so ugh. She is being a big pain in the butt and she really does have no right at all to be mad at you," Lisa responded.
"Let's get her," Callie replied with a smile.
"No arguments here. Why don't you go on up ahead to get the flag and we'll be watching here for the others," Hermione suggested.
Callie and Lisa nodded and Callie headed off.
*~*~*~
Harry was looking around for any sign of Callie, Hermione or Lisa. He then notices some movement behind the trees. He waited for a little bit and then noticed that Susan was near by.
He needed to get her out or at least distract her to get the flag. He made his way slowly back to Stephanie and said, "Okay, I'm going to distract her and when you notice that the coast is clear go and get the flag okay?"
"Okay," Stephanie nodded nervously.
"Don't worry, I'll watch your back," Kelly reassured her.
Harry took a deep breath and made a break for it. Running very fast past Susan and then ducking behind some trees.
Susan quickly aimed her gun at Harry and shot but missed and hit a tree instead. She quickly followed him but lost him and quickly raced back to where the flag was. She saw Stephanie walking away from the tree and aimed her gun to fire at her and missed her by a millimeter. Stephanie took this time to hide behind some mound of dirt.
Susan heard a gun fire and quickly ducked and the shot missed her. She quickly hid behind some trees and finally saw some movement behind some trees. She waited until she could see some part of the body and shot and it hit Kelly.
Kelly got up and called, "Out" and held the gun over her head and walked off of the field.
Susan then proceeded off to find the rest of her team.
During this time Harry had returned and made his way back to Stephanie.
Harry quietly motioned to tell Stephanie there was some movement near the trees. Stephanie nodded but was getting somewhat restless and was going to move towards another tree. It was then that Harry saw Kelly pointing her gun towards Stephanie and he then called out for her to duck and the paintballs just barely missed her and hit the trees.
"Run," Harry called and she complied quickly and ran behind another group of bushes. Harry was soon next to her.
"This is such a good experience for me," Stephanie told him.
"How?" Harry asked.
"It'll be a good angle for writing my stories and this is good for the heart," Stephanie explained.
"I'm glad. Okay so why don't we separate now and you go over there?" Harry asked pointing in that direction.
"But I'm sure that's what they want us to do," Stephanie pointed out.
"Yeah maybe but it's better than both of us getting shot isn't it? And I'll be watching you," Harry asked.
Stephanie nodded reluctantly and proceeded to walk on ahead.
He then told Diana, " I want you to stay here and watch for the other team to return."
*~*~*~*~
Callie was hiding behind some trees and looking around to see if anyone was guarding the flag and noticed someone watching the flag. After awhile she saw the face. It was Jennifer who was guarding the flag. She motioned for Hermione, Phil and Lisa to join her.
"Jennifer is guarding the flag, do you guys think you guys could distract her for a bit while I go and get the flag?" Callie asked.
"No problem," Hermione replied.
Hermione, Phil and Lisa sat behind some trees while aiming their guns at where Jennifer was last seen. They were going to shoot if they saw any sign of movement from Jennifer.
Callie very slowly proceeded towards the flag. She was laying low so that she would not be seen.
Jennifer was watching very closely and thought that she saw slight movement on the floor and quickly aimed her gun getting ready to fire. Once she was sure that there was someone there she pressed her finger to the trigger and felt a pellet of paint hit her arm. She called "Out" and She then held the gun over her head and walked off the field rubbing her arm to deal with the slight pain.
Callie grabbed the flag and returned back to join Hermione and Phil.
"A couple of us should stay here just incase they have got our flag," Phil responded.
"Okay then why don't you and Hermione stay here and wait?" Lisa suggested.
Hermione and Phil nodded.
"So, let's head back to our home base," Callie said with a smile.
*~*~*~*~
Stephanie and Harry and walking back to their home base hiding every once in a while behind a tree. They were cautious not to lose the flag. Stephanie was walking slowly up ahead towards their base. Harry thought he heard some movement behind him and signaled for Stephanie to continue on towards their base.
Harry waited quietly behind some dirt as he saw Susan walking past him and he aimed his gun and shot at her. He missed because she had ducked behind a tree. Susan was then looking in the direction of the gun shot getting ready to fire her gun when she saw Harry. She aimed at Harry and missed him. Harry fired back missing at first but then hit Susan on the shoulder as she tried to shoot back. Susan got up, called out and held the gun over her head. She then walked off the field. Harry then got up to return to his home base.
*~*~*~
Callie and Lisa were were reaching their home base with the flag. They hid behind some trees to observe their surroundings and noticed that their flag was gone.
"Well let's hope that Hermione and Phil can get our flag back," Callie told Lisa.
*~*~*~*~
Back at the Harry's team home base:
Hermione and Phil stood at different positions waiting patiently for any sign of the other team returning.
A few moments later Hermione saw Stephanie carrying a flag. She was looking around carefully and quickly ducked behind some rocks.
"Come on Stephanie, come on out to where we can see you," Hermione said.
Stephanie was looking around and didn't notice anyone around so she walked out from behind the tree and she narrowly missed being hit by a paintball. She looked around trying to see her shooter but she couldn't see anyone. She was getting nervous and then she saw another paintball narrowly miss her and hitting a tree from another direction.
Hermione walked closer to her and stood close to a tree and said, "Surrender Stephanie."
"No, I won't," Stephanie responded with more confidence then she felt and aimed her gun to shoot Hermione but didn't get a chance as she was hit with a paintball from behind her.
"That wasn't really fair," Stephanie answered.
"Dead people aren't allowed to talk," Hermione replied.
Stephanie looked angry and was about to say something but decided against it stalked off the field.
Hermione picked up the flag and smiled at Phil, "Thanks for the cover."
"No problem," Phil responded with a smile.
"Why don't you head back to our home base? I'll be there in a little bit," Hermione told him.
"Sure?" Phil asked.
"Yeah, I can protect myself," Hermione assured him.
Harry had headed back and saw someone already there. He then smiled as he realized who it was. "So it's just you and me huh Hermione?"
"I guess it is," Hermione responded with a slight smile.
"You know I'm going to have to get that flag from you," He said with a slight grin and amused tone.
"I know but you know that I can't give it to you," She responded back in the same tone.
"So what are the stakes?" She asked.
"How about if I win, you'll clean my room for a month?" He suggested.
"No, let's make it more interesting," Hermione replied.
"If I win, you have to go to that dinner with that annoying contributor of yours," He suggested with a sly grin.
"No way, I've been avoiding her for the past 4 months. You wouldn't do that to me, I mean you've met her right?" She asked.
"Hey, you wanted to make it more interesting," Harry added.
"Fine, what about if I win?" Hermione inquired.
"If you win I'll do that interview for that magazine with Rita Skeeter," He answered easily.
"No, you were going to have to do that interview eventually. No it needs to be a little more interesting," She interjected.
"Fine, what do you suggest?" Harry asked.
"If I win, then you have to shave your head leaving a patch of hair on your head," Hermione responded.
"I don't think that the producers would appreciate that very much," He answered with a slight grin.
"Well I wouldn't ask you to do it right now. You could do it after the show and I think you would look cute," She replied.
"In that case that still wouldn't work, remember that I don't want to draw attention to myself," Harry reminded her.
"I got it then, for one night we will go out and you will say anything I tell you to," Hermione said after a moment brightly.
"Anything?" He inquired.
"Yep, anything. Are you worried? " She answered in a teasing tone.
"No, but fine," Harry reluctantly agreed.
"Great," Hermione replied cheerfully.
Just then he heard the sound of someone heading towards them. Harry turned around and Hermione took this opportunity to hide.
Harry saw Phil quickly hide behind some bushes. He turned back around and saw that Hermione was gone. He just shook his head with a smile and ran towards a portion of dirt to survey his surroundings. At first he saw Phil from behind some trees and Harry aimed his gun and fired. He had a direct hit and then Phil was out. He waited for that familiar head of brown hair to pass by and he wasn't disappointed. He saw Hermione run in the direction towards her home base. He smiled and headed off in the same direction.
*~*~*~*~
Callie and Lisa had been waiting patiently in two separate locations. Callie then noticed some movement coming from the trees next to her. That was then that Callie was able to see Diana. She was very good at hiding.
Diana had been waiting for awhile and noticed that nobody approaching the flag pole which she found to be really suspicious. She suspected that some of them were hiding. She was watching the trees closely and finally noticed a flash of a muzzle and decided to see if she could not force one of them to show himself or herself. She moved very quickly into view and immediately ducked. It was then that she saw Lisa. Diana aimed her gun at Lisa as she came into view and shot her on the arm. Lisa walked out and headed off the field.
A little while later Hermione and Harry came into the area. They were both surveying their environments and looking for their team mates as well as for each other. Hermione spotted Callie and slowly tried to walk towards her but she was shot at. Diana had been aiming at her. Callie noticed this and moved closer towards Diana and was able to spot her really well. She aimed her gun at her and shot but missed.
Diana turned towards the direction her shooter had shot from and thought that she noticed a glimmer of a flag. She then aimed her gun back at Callie and shot and missed as well.
Hermione noticed that the shooting had stopped at her and saw that Callie was getting shot at aimed at Diana as she was aiming for Callie and shot at her but she missed. Hermione decided that she needed to distract her and moved closer to the flag pole near Diana. Hermione hid behind some trees and was able to see Diana very well with minimal blockage. She aimed her gun at Diana and this time was able to hit her well in the shoulder. Diana dropped her gun and walked off the field.
Harry witnessed Diana getting shot but didn't help because it was too late and decided that it was best to wait for a good opportunity before eliminating Callie and Hermione.
Hermione reached Callie and said, "Okay so you need to get near the flag pole okay?"
Callie nodded and slowly looked around before running off and hiding behind the next available tree. Hermione followed in the same fashion. Callie reached the pole and was about to put it back on the pole when she saw a paintball land near her. Callie quickly hung up the flag and ran for cover.
Harry took this opportunity and followed her path and when the right moment arrived he aimed and he was able to hit Callie in back. Callie then walked off the field leaving Harry and Hermione.
Hermione was looking around realizing that Harry was near by. She knew that in order for her to see him she would have to trick him into coming up or showing himself. Knowing Harry he probably wouldn't show himself until she did. She would have to show herself in a way that would prevent him from trying to shoot her. Hermione got up in plain sight with her flag and pretended to trip. She then saw Harry coming out to see if she was okay and she smiled and got up and quickly aimed her gun at him at shot at him but Harry was too fast and she missed him.
"Surrender Hermione?" Harry asked.
"I can't do that. We're too close," Hermione replied with a smile.
Harry moved closer to her and asked again, "Surrender?"
"Nope, I can't. What are you doing?" Hermione asked nervously.
"I'm going to get you to give me the flag," He answered.
"No physical force in this game right?" She asked.
"Who said anything about physical force?" Harry asked.
Hermione began to move back and said, "Harry look out behind you."
Harry turned around and Hermione took this opportunity to run away and hide.
"That wasn't fair," Harry said to Hermione.
Hermione just smiled and didn't respond as to give away her hiding place.
Hermione moved closer and closer to the flag pole. Harry knew that Hermione needed to return to the flag pole so he waited for her to appear. As he saw her approaching the flag pole while looking around and decided to scare her into dropping the flag so he aimed his gun and shot at a spot near her. This caused Hermione to stop whatever she was doing but she didn't drop her flag.
Harry then slowly crept up to Hermione and came up behind her.
Hermione suddenly turned around with her gun ready but nobody was there.
Hermione decided that she better turn for cover and headed back towards a tree. Harry took this opportunity to shoot a tree near where Hermione was hiding to get her to think he was somewhere else. Harry went to the pole and grabbed the flag back and at the last minute Hermione saw and aimed her gun to fire at him but once again she missed.
Hermione decided to use one last tactic. She came out and called out, "Harry, can we talk?"
Harry came out cautiously and said, "What about?"
"Well, I was thinking about maybe surrendering, I mean you obviously have an advantage over me in your technique. I was watching you and you were just so incredibly good at this," Hermione started.
"Well, I had a lot of training," Harry answered modestly.
Hermione walked closer to him and then said in a seductive tone, "There's a lot to this game that I could learn from you and I was wondering if you could teach me."
"I mean, of course Hermione," Harry said a little flustered by her tone and closeness.
Hermione walked even closer and whispered in his ear, "How about now?"
"Now? Sure," Harry responded huskily and as he raised his arm, Hermione took the opportunity to take the flag from his hand.
Hermione broke out in a grin and ran off the pole and it took Harry a second before he ran after her.
Just then Lisa came out and said, "Time's up."
"We win!" Hermione called out happily.
Harry just shook his head but smiled at the sight of the happy Hermione.
He walked up to Hermione and said, "That wasn't fair and you know it."
"You didn't have to fall for it," She replied back in a playful tone.
"You'll pay for this," Harry replied back in a playful tone.
"We'll see and I can't wait until you have to pay up," Hermione answered with a grin.
Callie and Lisa came up and asked her, " What does that mean?"
"Nothing, We were just having a little fun," Hermione answered back with a grin.
The girls were all tired when they headed back to the mansion and extremely hungry.
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