Many thanks to everyone who reviewed my first chapter! You all inspired me to sit down and write chapter 2 today, so here it is!
Chapter 3 should come soon.
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"Hermione. Hermione!" Lavender barked as she shook Hermione awake.
"Wha. . .huh? What happened?" Hermione mumbled.
"You slept through your alarm and you've got twenty minutes before the exam!" Lavender screeched, as she tripped trying to get her shoes on. "Hurry, I'll only wait for you for ten minutes!"
"BLOODY HELL! I can't believe I did this!" Hermione groaned. She dressed in record time, not bothering to look in the mirror. She gathered her book bag and dashed out the door with Lavender.
They arrived in the dungeon with five minutes to spare. Snape was up at his desk talking with a student when they walked in. He didn't even acknowledge they had arrived. Whew! Close one! Hermione sighed internally.
"You know you were dreaming again." Lavender giggled when she saw the look of shock and dread cross Hermione's face. "You had a huge smile on your face and you were moaning and sighing like you were having the best shag of your life!" Lavender whispered once they had taken their seats.
"WHAT!?" Hormone almost screamed, getting the attention of some students around them and making Snape give them an annoyed glare. Hermione felt her face turn crimson and her heart drop to her stomach.
"Shh! Oh yeah, it was hilarious! I was getting hot just listening to you. You know that this is the third morning in the last two weeks I've woken up to that." Lavender giggled, trying to refrain from laughing out loud.
Hermione felt like she wanted to hide. Someone had found out her secret. Please tell me I didn't say his name out loud! Please! I know in my dreams I shouted his name over and over. I will just die if Lavender knows who I have dreams about! She can't know. Can she? Her question was answered not a second later.
"So when are you going to tell me who you're dreaming about? Is it someone here at Hogwarts? Someone in Gryffindor? Ooooh, this is SO scandalous!" Lavender gushed, startling to get a little too loud.
Thank Merlin! I almost had a heart attack! "I'm not going to tell you, that's none of your business!" Hermione whispered back.
"Oh come on! We're friends, that's what friends do! We've got each other's backs and we gossip about who we fantasize about." Lavender pleaded.
"No! I know we are friends, but I also know that, and don't take offence to this, I know that if I tell you then it will be all over the school by lunch time." Hermione said.
"Please? Hermione, come on. Please? Please? Plea. . ." Hormone fazed Lavender out once she saw who walked in the door.
Harry sauntered in, Ron in tow, and made his way over to his cauldron. Hermione had never been one to admire from afar, but she had never felt this way about anyone in her life. Of course, she had crushes on boys, including Vicktor and Seamus, but none of them were Harry. Even when she had crushes on those boys, she found herself comparing them to Harry. She didn't know what it was about Harry, but something about him made her throw the rational part of her conscious out the window and the voice in her head fade away. Whenever she was around him, it took what was left of her self control to keep from running her hands through his raven black hair or gaze deeply into those emerald green eyes. Whenever they were apart, he was all she could think about. She hated this because it distracted her from her studies, but she loved it because she knew that only Harry could make her forget about studying.
Lavender must have seen the look on her face, and the person who she was staring at, because a few seconds later Hermione was shaken out of her temporary haze. "HOLY SHIT! Are you kidding me? You are telling me that. . ." Lavender was cut off.
"SHH! You say one word to anyone I will hex you into the next century. And you know I can too!" Lavender threw up her hands in surrender, giggling hysterically. "I really don't want to talk about this now, Snape is about to pass out the exam and I don't want this on my mind while I take one of the most important exams of my life." Hermione hissed as she turned around in her chair, only to come face to face with Harry. "Oh!"
"Hey Hermione. What don't you want on your mind?" He greeted her with a slightly confused smile.
"Oh, umm. . .just, uh. . .our Charms exam tomorrow. Yeah. I want to be totally focused on this test so I can complete it and then focus on Charms." Hermione stated. Oh man, that was a close one. Why is he looking at me like that? He looks like I just kicked his puppy. Don't think about him. Concentrate on Potions. Potions. Potions!
"Alright. Well, good luck, not that you need it Oh, and you know that you hair is sticking strait up on that side. What happened? Got dressed in the dark?" He gave a slight smile and another wink and turned around just as Snape tapped the blackboard and the recipe for a potion appeared. Hermione gasped, attempted to smooth out her hair, and then glared at Lavender as to say You let me go out like this? You let HIM see me like this?
The second she finished her exam, which took longer than it should have because of the distraction she dreamed about last night, she ran back to Gryffindor tower, retrieved her diary from the locked drawer in her nightstand, and went to find a quiet place to write. She knew that lunch didn't start for another thrity minutes, and she hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday, so she headed towards the Great Hall so she would be sure she didn't miss another meal.
She sat down in their usual place at the Gryffindor table and pulled out the notebook and quill.
Dear Diary,
I cant believe that it happened again. In this dream, Harry took me up to the Astronomy tower and gave me the best shag of my life. Well, yes. . .I am still a virgin, but that's what Lavender said I sounded like when she woke me up this morning. She said that I was moaning and gasping in my sleep and she knew that I was having a sex dream. It was so embarrassing! And then she found out whom they were about once she caught me staring at Harry. I can't be more mortified. Well, yes I could. HE could know about my dreams and my feelings for him. I can't concentrate around him, I can't speak around him, and I can't think about anything but him whenever he's not around. Why do I feel this way? I shouldn't feel this way! I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to look him in the eye!
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As Harry strode into the Great Hall for lunch, he automatically spotted her sitting by herself. As he got closer, he realized that she was once again writing away in her diary. She was completely consumed with whatever she was writing and Harry noticed that she was biting her lip. He smiled remembering the hundreds of times he had glanced across the table in the library and seen her make that face. He loved the familiarity of that face. But something just felt different this time. He shrugged it off and walked on over.
"Hope you're writing nice things about me." He said as he slid onto the bench across from her. This startled her and the second she looked up, he saw panic in her eyes as she slammed the notebook shut and hid it away in her bag.
"Hermione, are you alright?" Harry asked, a look of hurt and confusion flashed across his face.
"Of course, Harry. You just scared me. You know, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that." Hermione gave one of her killer smiles and reached for a roll and some carrot sticks. He didn't know why, but something in the pit of his stomach tightened when she smiled.
"No, I mean, lately. You've been very jumpy and you wont talk to me. Is there something bothering you?" Harry asked.
"Why would you ask that, Harry. I'm just fine, but I guess I'm just a little stressed about the N.E.W.Ts." She wasn't looking him in the eye. He knew something was up.
"You sure? Because you know that you can trust me with whatever is going on." He said, reaching over and touching her arm. He could have sworn she blushed but then she jerked away and straightened up.
"Yes, Harry. I know." She said, not looking him in the eyes. "Better hurry up and eat. We have Charms to study for this afternoon." She said, changing the subject.
"Don't remind me!" Harry sighed, accepting the fact that Hermione didn't want to talk to him about what was bothering her, at least for now. I've got to find a way to get her to talk to me. Why is this bothering me so much? Its probably something silly like who she has a crush on and she's embarrassed to tell me who it is. But why wouldn't she want me to know? Hormone has never liked a guy before and not told me. She has always been comfortable telling me these things, why would this be any different? Of course none of her relationships ever lasted too long. No one was ever good enough for my Hermione. Wait. . .what am I saying? MY Hermione? Where did that come from?
Just then, Ron sauntered in, plopped down, and stuck a handful of chips in his mouth.
"Can you believe that by this time tomorrow, we will be done with N.E.W.Ts and we can celebrate?! How `bout it, guys? The three of us celebrate down at the Three Broomsticks tomorrow night?" He said excitedly with a mouth full of chips.
"That would be wonderful! Can't wait!" Hermione beamed. "Better hurry and eat boys. I'll meet you in the library." And with that, she walked out of the Great Hall.
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