'Or is it Harry?'
~ The Boy ~
It was midnight again, and Harry Potter was wide awake. He was sitting at his bedroom window, studying by candlelight. He'd started writing notes on the Major Arcana Tarot for Divination class, when somebody to his right spluttered awake. It was Ron. Harry caught sight of his slack, freckled face leering out from beneath his bed hangings.
'Harry,' he groaned sluggishly, 'you're not still studying, are you?'
Harry kept writing, and responded, 'no, Ron, I'm knitting a sweater.'
Ron made a funny face. 'Eh?'
'Of course I'm still bloody studying!' said Harry, stating the obvious. Ron yawned at him.
'Harry, for Merlin's sake! Give it a rest will you? Studying all night like this...it's like you're possessed by Hermione.'
Hermione. The very person Harry couldn't get out of his mind.
'Look, I can't sleep, so I may as well use the time to catch up on homework.'
'Listen to you?' Ron's voice was full of pity. 'You know what? I think you have been possessed by Hermione.'
Harry glared at him. Ron chuckled tiredly.
'Harry, do yourself a favour and quit while you're ahead! You'll turn into a real grump at this rate.'
'I am not a grump!' Harry snapped, grumpily of course. Ron gave him a look that said `oh yes you are', before closing his hangings and rolling back into bed.
'Suit yourself,' Harry heard him say. 'If you drop dead tomorrow from lack of sleep, don't blame me. Just make sure you do it in front of Professor Trewlawny. She'll think Christmas has come early.'
With Ron out of the way, Harry continued studying, but with little success. Truth be told, he didn't want to study. He was bloody tired, and would love nothing more then to flop onto his four-poster bed and drown in sleep. But he had to plough on! If he didn't, his mind would wonder off and he'd think about certain...people. Or worse, he'd fall asleep and have certain...dreams, about certain people. Abandoning Divination, he was about to move onto Herbology, but found himself picking up Hermione's Potions book instead. Despite himself, he opened it to the page he knew well and read through what he'd written; including the new bits he couldn't remember adding.
'I can't believe I...'
Harry rested his eyes. Great, just great he thought, annoyed with himself. He was thinking about the very person he wasn't supposed to be thinking about. Mentally exhausted, he sought solace in the moon, shining brilliantly in the night sky outside his window. Then, without reaslising it, his eyelids grew heavier, and heavier...she lingered in his thoughts...
~ The Girl ~
The girl in Harry's thoughts was also up that night, funnily enough. Hermione Granger, who hadn't completed much schoolwork in the past week due to love potions and other 'engagements', was doing the exact same thing as Harry: studying. She too sat by her bedroom window, accompanied by a lantern and a pile of schoolbooks, which were presently being moved and shuffled around in a frantic search.
'Where is it?' Hermione whispered temperamentally. 'Where's my Potions book?'
All the hustle and bustle woke one of Hermione's roommates, Lavender Brown. Protruding her head out from under her hangings, she peered over at Hermione with severe disbelief.
'Do you ever stop studying?' she asked in a reproachful sort of voice. Hermione, favouring not to indulge her, avoided answering.
'Lavender, go back to sleep! Sorry if I woke you.'
Lavender giggled.
'You wouldn't be trying to get your mind of your many boyfriends, would you?'
'Oh, please!' Hermione scoffed. 'Don't be ridiculous! I don't have any boyfriends, Lavender.'
'Yeah right,' she mocked. 'So you put all those guys on love potion for kicks then?'
As if Hermione wasn't frustrated enough.
'I did not mean to put anyone on love potion! You don't know what you're talking about Lavender, you really don't.'
But Lavender was persistent. Hermione and the story her torrid love potion was the hottest scandal around Hogwarts. As a result, Hermione had become everyone's favourite person to tease; and, needless to say, she wasn't enjoying the attention one bit.
'Are you still getting love letters from Krum? Or is Malfoy topping your list this week? Or perhaps Harry?'
Harry. And then it her!
'Harry!' Hermione said aloud, remembering. Lavender took it as a sign.
'Ooooh! So it's Harry you fancy then! I always thought so...'
'No!' said Hermione roughly. 'I meant Harry has my Potions book. I'll have to remember to ask for it tomorrow.'
'Why wait for tomorrow? Sneak over to the boy's dormitories now, hop into Harry's bed and - '
'Lavender! That's enough!'
'Hermione loves Harry! Harry loves Hermione! They're going to get married, have a million babies - '
Someone else had woken up by now. Parvati Patil stripped back her hangings, wearing a black, fluffy eye patch. 'Would you guys be quiet! Some people are trying to get their beauty sleep!' Lavender glared at her with amusement.
'Parvati, I can't believe you sleep with that thing on. It looks like a niffler's attached to your head!'
Hermione stifled a laugh.
'Sleep!' Parvati hissed, and yanked her curtain shut.
Lavender gave up on Hermione shortly after, falling asleep again. Hermione however, went on studying, though it wasn't progressing at all well. As the night wore on, her concentration diminished; and if Hermione couldn't concentrate, her mind would stumble onto Harry. Harry. Harry and the love potion. How she felt when he...
Don't even think about it Hermione disciplined herself, and resolved to call it a night. Leaving her schoolbooks in disarray, she picked up the lantern she'd been keeping and tiptoed to bed. Laying down, she turned the lantern out and curled up on her side, one hand under her head and the other under her pillow...
'Hmm?' she murmured curiously. Something was there, hidden under the pillow. Remembering what it was, she silently chided herself. How could she forget? It was the card Harry had left in her room, reading Love Harry, when he'd been on love potion. Resting on her back, Hermione held it over her head, gazing. He'd given her this before he...before he...
So much for not thinking about it Hermione thought bleakly, and tucked the card back in its original place.
~ The Other Boy ~
Another student was awake that night, only this one was on a mission. Draco Malfoy snuck back through the Slytherin portrait hole and up the stairs, concealing something under his green bed robe.
'Stupid Madame Pince,' he muttered slyly under his breath, treading carefully into his dormitory room. 'Knew I could to it.'
'Do what?'
Malfoy froze. It was Goyle, sitting up in his bed.
'Nothing,' said Malfoy, playing innocent. 'Go back to sleep, Goyle, you're even uglier in the middle of the night!'
'Where did you go?'
Malfoy pursed his lips in irritation.
'If you must know, the toilet. All right?'
'To do what?'
'To piss idiot!'
'Oh,' said Goyle dopily. 'Right, sorry Malfoy.'
Goyle turned over and went back to sleep. He could have sworn he heard Malfoy mutter something about Madame Pince, but how the school librarian and Malfoy taking a piss connected confused him profoundly for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Malfoy uncovered what he'd been hiding. It was a large, red book called A Wizard's and Witch's Guide to Love Made Easy.
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