A/N: Ahem. Ok. Don't kill me . . . but I think this story's almost finished. Don't hurt me! *ducks* I started this with no direction really and no planned length, so when I realized that this seems almost finished I was just as surprised (and disappointed) as I'm sure you guys are. I'll try drawing it out within reason, but as of right now, I'd say there're two maybe three chapters left. As I've said before, I just don't do lengthy, drawn out, plot driven stories. Sorry!
I do want to thank everyone who reviewed!! I'm positively blown away by the amount of reviews this story (especially the last chapter) got! Even if I don't reply to every review, I do appreciate every single one. They are truly my addiction, especially since I've had to give up chocolate. *sob* To those who expressed concern over my health, thank you so very much! I'm feeling ten hundred times better and that's why this chapter is out much faster than my previous chapters.
Oh, and this is un-beta'd so all mistakes, crappy writing, and Americanisms are my own.
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When Harry woke he felt like Crookshanks had curled up in a little ball, and decided to take a cat nap in his mouth. But he felt warm and at that point that seemed to be all that really mattered.
He rubbed the grime out of his eyes, replacing his glasses as he did so. He was so comfortable, he didn't really want to move and dislodge the warmth covering his entire right side. Hm, that was weird. He turned his head and looked over at Hermione, half draped on top of him and still deeply asleep.
The two previous mornings they'd been up before Ron, so he hadn't known about their late night . . . rendezvous? Rendezvousi? Rendezvouses? Rendezvousees? What was the plural on that? He was tempted to wake Hermione up to ask her, but she looked too peaceful and too beautiful to disturb.
He lifted his hand and brushed a wayward lock of hair out of her face and back behind her ear. He remembered everything that had happened last night, as he hadn't been that drunk. He wondered if Hermione would. At that thought he was a bit scared that she would and a bit scared that she wouldn't.
What did this mean for them anyway? On one hand it seemed as though this . . . this was a long time in coming and yet it seemed so new, foreign and yet familiar. Harry stared up at the buttons and the design on the fabric on the mattress above him, confused for the most part, but a little scared and a whole lot excited.
Hermione stirred next to him, moaning softly in pain. She turned her head and burrowed her face into his shoulder. "What happened?" she murmured groggily.
"Well, you got drunk and decided to practice some of your moves in front of the boys," Harry replied nonchalantly. "They all agreed that you're ritzy strip club material."
Hermione lifted her head and looked up at him with wide horrified eyes before narrowing them and slapping him on the chest. "Funny, Potter."
Harry grinned. "I thought so. Maybe I should be a comedian at your ritzy strip club."
"Don't quit your day job."
"I don't have one."
"Well, when you do . . ." she trailed off before groaning again.
"Good morning!" one of the twins chirped happily.
There was a blinding flash of light and when Harry could see again he found Dean, Seamus, Fred and George smiling down at them from the opening of the fortress. Seamus was holding a camera in his hands.
"Sod off, we weren't doing anything illegal," Harry shot back sitting up and crawling out of the fort with Hermione close behind.
"I wouldn't get Harry mad," Neville spoke up from the table. Ginny was just waking from where she was curled up in one of the chairs. "I've seen him mad and it's downright scary."
"Go pick on Ron and Luna, they were the ones making all the noise last night," Harry grumped sitting on his bed and putting his head in his hands, his elbows propped on his knees. Hermione plopped next to him, rubbing her temple with a grimace.
A new light sparked in the twins' eyes that boded ill for Ron. "Oh really," George grinned evilly eyeing the lumps on under Ron's blanket on his bed.
"Well, well," Fred concurred with an identical expression.
"I think I threw them off our scent," Harry whispered in Hermione's ear, a grin quirking at his lips with her tiny shudder.
"Not when that picture's developed," Hermione whispered back causing a twin shiver to run down his spine.
"Bugger," Harry muttered, not because he was ashamed to be seen with Hermione in a potentially compromising position, but he really didn't want to give the twins or any of the Weasley's fodder for teasing for the next decade or so.
Not that they really needed a photo for that anyway, but it certainly kept the memory fresh.
In the next bed over, Dean was gesturing for everyone to be quiet, gripping the top of the duvet. Seamus took aim with his camera and Dean yanked the duvet off. Sprawled on top of Ron, both half dressed, Luna blinked sleepily up at them. She yawned, stretched and smiled as if she hadn't a care in the world. "Good morning. Is there any coffee?" she asked.
Ron didn't even wake.
"Got it," Seamus grinned, shrinking the camera to fit in his pocket.
A healer nudged open the double doors calling out, "Breakfast!" and pushed in a cart bearing enough trays for everyone. Ron started awake, blearily rubbing his eye. "What? Food?" he mumbled.
Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry went to get the four of them trays. "Cover up Ron."
Ron squeaked, fully awake now, and pulled up the blankets to cover his boxers then groaned in pain at the sudden motion. Luna grinned from next to him, fully comfortable wearing only Ron's shirt.
"How much did you have to drink last night?" Harry grinned handing Luna, Ron, and Hermione a tray.
"Too much," Ron muttered, glancing over at Luna with a face as red as his hair. "Merlin, it hurts even to blush!"
"Wimp," Hermione grinned. She glanced up at Ginny who walked between them and sat on the other side of Harry and pulled her legs up on the bed.
"I would tease you, but then I would have to acknowledge that my brother wasn't playing Exploding Snap under his blankets," Ginny grinned at Ron.
Harry felt Hermione tense next to him and grow quiet and pensive while everyone, even Neville, took a crack at Ron. He looked over at her curiously and even though he knew she knew he was watching her, she refused to look up.
"The Healers here are not nice," Seamus pouted returning to the group crowded on and around Harry and Ron's beds.
"Wouldn't give you a hangover potion?" Neville grinned. He was quite proud that he had matched the regular drinkers shot for shot and had been the only one to escape any symptoms of a hangover.
Seamus scowled. "Just because you of all people seem to have a hollow leg, doesn't mean we do."
Neville coughed something that sounded a lot like "pansy" but before Seamus could cause any lasting damage, Fred pulled out an extra large sized bottle of hangover potion to dole out to anyone in need.
Harry handed Hermione the bottle without taking any, feeling fine other than some cotton mouth, but watched her wince when she drank it then sigh in relief before passing on the bottle. He was glad that it wasn't awkward between them, but he did need to know if she'd regretted anything last night and he suspected that he wasn't going to find out until later that night.
"Hermione, can I talk to you a second?" Ginny asked, wringing her hands nervously.
Hermione glanced over at Luna who looked glanced at the both of them with what looked like concern. "I already know," she replied to Hermione's unspoken confusion.
"Er, yeah," Hermione replied, standing and following Ginny over to the corner of the room.
"Oi! No secrets!" Fred called out.
"That's right! Whatever you have to say can be said in front of the whole class," George seconded.
"I highly doubt you want to hear this," Ginny replied. "We're only going to discuss hair, clothes, babies -"
"Periods, menopause -" Hermione chimed in watching the boys pale with amusement.
"Cramps, giving birth -"
"Cleaning -"
"Ok, ok, alright!" Ron shouted his hands firmly clamped over his ears. "La la la! I can't hear you!"
"You two are vicious," Harry tried to frown but couldn't quite hide a small chuckle. He watched his ex-girlfriend and his . . . er, friend with benefits? No, that sounded too flippant. Girlfriend? Was it too soon to call her that? Well, his . . . Hermione talking in low whispers made him distinctly nervous.
"YOU WHAT?!"
The boys, who had started talking about some of the twins' newest inventions while casting the occasional suspicious look at the two girls (and studiously ignoring Luna and Ron feeding each other), jerked their heads over to Hermione and Ginny. "Everything ok over there?" Dean asked.
"Er, yeah, sorry," Hermione replied blushing. She took Ginny's arm and marched her further into the corner of the room. They were whispering furiously by this time, but much to everyone's dismay, the twins had neglected to bring any Extendable Ears. As one, they looked at each other then over to Luna who promptly shook her head.
"You'll find out soon enough, but I'd rather it didn't come from me," she replied adamantly. "Besides, if you'd had any common sense you'd know that telling a secret only makes you vulnerable to a Korsnix and that never ends well now does it."
Hermione and Ginny rejoined them shortly, all of them watching the pair oddly. Hermione had a troubled yet relieved expression while Ginny looked as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "Yes, well. Who's up for tea?" Hermione asked in a strangely chirpy voice that dared anyone refuse her tea.
Hermione and Ginny proved their stubbornness after ignoring nearly half an hour of unrelenting questioning and pestering. Harry knew that a battering ram on the main castle gates wasn't the way to get information from Hermione. She knew how to call out the troops and throw up the defenses. No, the real way to get past Hermione's guard was a subtle distraction, a sleight of hand that would have her letting down her guard in such a way that she wouldn't know what she was doing until the information was given and the damage was done.
He didn't have a chance to put his plan into action until that night after Ron was doing his finest lumberjack impression. Harry and Hermione stood in front of the fort shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, neither one daring to look at each other or the fort. Harry took a deep breath; Gryffindor courage and all that. "Well," he whispered, "ladies first."
Hermione looked up at him in surprise then a small relieved grin stole over her face. She ducked down and crawled inside. "Age before beauty," he added crawling in beside her.
She laughed softly and thwomped him in the face with a pillow when he lay on his side next to her.
He turned his head and smiled at her, his heart beating erratically in his chest.
"Harry," she whispered, turning on her side and shyly looking up at him through her lashes. "Do you -?"
"Yeah, I remember, do you?"
"Yeah," she whispered back, looking down to where her hands picked at a piece of string on one of the blankets.
The silence grew long and awkward before Harry spoke up again. "I don't regret it, if that's what you're afraid of."
Hermione shrugged a shoulder and looked up at him, meeting him eye to eye. "Sort of. I don't want to be girly about this, but . . . what does this mean now?"
Harry had a glib response on the tip of his tongue, but the vulnerability in her eyes and the seriousness of the conversation stayed the words. He didn't feel like saying them anyway and trying to inject levity into a conversation where none was needed or wanted, he knew, was a very bad idea. "Well, for one I'd like to kiss you again," he whispered, subtly shifting closer to her. "Sober this time."
"And for two?" she asked hopefully, also shifting closer to him, her eyes trained on his.
"I'd - I'd like to see where this goes," he admitted honestly, his heart in his throat. "That is, if you want to?"
Hermione grinned softly, her eyes straying to his lips as his had been all day. "I'd like that. A lot. It scares me a bit to tell you the truth. It all seems a bit . . . "
"Sudden. But it feels familiar, yeah."
"So."
Harry grinned and leaned forward those scant two inches and kissed her for real this time. He remembered the kiss tasting like butter beer last night, but tonight it tasted sweet and feminine and very lovely. He nipped softly at her lower lip to ask for entrance and groaned softly in the back of his throat as her tongue swept into his mouth. When she let out a small whimper it boosted his confidence to run his hand down her side to her hip. She slid her leg over his hip and had his eyes been open, they would've rolled back, but instead he moaned in response.
Hermione was the one who finally pulled away for air. "Merlin," she muttered softly. "I'll take a sober snog over a drunken one any day. Not the least that you stayed awake this time."
Harry blushed which she was very glad she couldn't see. "Yeah, sorry about that."
She smiled in the dark and caressed his lips. "After that kiss, I've forgiven you."
He lay on his back and she snuggled up close to him, kissing his neck as she got comfortable. "And I'm on to you Harry Potter," she whispered seductively in his ear. "Don't even think that I'm going to give up Ginny's secret."
"Bugger."
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