AN:Okay so I had a stupid moment and had to fix the anagram/acronym thing… you'd think me being a huge Da Vinci Code fan I'd catch my error but whatever. I wrote it in one hour. You have to give me one dumb moment.
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Winter was most definitely not Hermione's favorite season. Other than being cold, she was incredibly prone to sickness, be it a cough or a cold or a sniffle- Hermione hated winter.
And, of course, come November she promptly got a strain of flu and was restricted to the couch in the common room, grouchy and headache-ridden. Madam Pomfrey still being overbooked with homesick first-years and snuffling lower classmen she had opted for self treatment. She had barely drawn Madam Pomfrey away from her patients long enough to get a potion for her sore throat.
The only break in the day's endless tediums (It was a Wednesday, she had completed her homework and there was no TV to vegetate in front of) were Harry's occasional visits. He had brought her up breakfast, Tea the way she liked it with one and a half sugar cubes and just a dash of milk. He had also brought up two 2-minute eggs and toast, lightly browned and buttered, specially made by the house-elves (or more specifically, Dobby) for Harry to bring to her.
Looking at her schedule, fifth period would be ending within next five minutes. Everyone would go to lunch, take the allotted ten minute break, and then head to sixth period, which Hermione knew for Harry was a free period.
Sure enough, half an hour later, there was Harry with a tray of lunch.
She smiled when she saw that it was a Turkey club sandwich and chicken noodle soup- Her favorites. She smiled at him again, not talking because of her painfully sore throat.
"Turkey sandwich, roast beef, ham, lettuce, provolone cheese, mayonnaise, and mustard." He said, setting it down on her lap.
She beamed at him.
"And I'm guessing you did your homework so I brought a book I hope you haven't read…"
She grabbed the book out of his hands and nodded. It was a book on Harrappan Liger Monkeys. She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised.
"Hey, Luna went and got it for me. She had a free period before lunch."
Once she was situated he sat down with a sandwich of his own, sipping pumpkin juice every so often.
Thankfully his eating habits were somewhat more bearable than Ron's.
"So are you feeling any better?" he asked.
She shook her head no.
"I didn't think so." He said. Looking at her pale face and the fact that she was still in pajamas and had taken up all the space on the best common room couch.
They settled into a comfortable silence, broken only by the sounds of food being chewed.
When she finished the sandwich, she looked at the spine of the book, and laughed.
"What?"
She pointed at the Author's name. "Anagram." She croaked out.
He looked at the name, Gandolo Voule-A perfect anagram for Luna's name. He let out a snort of laughter too. They looked at the publisher-sure enough it was the same publisher who published the Quibbler.
They laughed for a while, and then Harry freed Hermione of the tray on her lap.
Now there wasn't much to do in the half-hour or so before everyone else started showing up in the common room, getting things before class and changing out of food stained clothes.
Hermione had tried unsuccessfully to dim the fire all day, and now they were both feeling the effects of it-Hermione was thrown one of her blankets off her and Harry was removing his jumper.
She found herself staring at the muscles of his arms and the tiny bit of stomach his shirt left exposed while he stretched to remove the offending article of clothing.
Once she realized what she was doing, however, she immediately looked away.
Hermione! Stop! He's your best friend!
People went from best friends to even better all the time…
But not them, no matter how many hints she left for him to pick up. Clueless boys- he wouldn't notice her for anything short of dancing naked outside his window at midnight… and that was starting to look like a good idea.
He certainly had noticed when Ginny grew breasts. And started wearing makeup, and changed her shampoo, and started wearing that new perfume that was magically enhanced…
What am I thinking? It's not like I should be jealous- we're just friends!
But then she realized he hadn't said anything. She looked at herself, looking for stains or something else, but realized her shirt had slipped down halfway over her own breast, exposing quite a bit more than Harry probably even knew she had.
To cover it up was to draw attention to it, but to ignore it was basically to let him keep staring. But the staring kind of gave her a nice warm feeling inside, like maybe Harry had finally realized she was a girl, a completely available girl, and a girl who knew him as Harry, the-boy-who-couldn't-match-his-socks-correctly instead of the Boy-who-lived.
But she doubted it. She snapped his fingers to gain his attention back on her face, and motioned that she was thirsty.
"Oh, yeah! I forgot!" he said, blushing and conjuring up a tea, two sugars, and a small amount of milk. He dropped the sugar in and took one out half-melted, and poured the tea over the milk.
He handed it to her and she gave him a smile of thanks. He also handed her a potion bottle.
"Slughorn had a migraine this morning so we had a sub who just told us to make a strep throat potion. I supposed it might work on your sore throat."
She smiled and nodded. Sickness symptom potions were all essentially the same, as long as the sickness was similar.
She swallowed it and immediately felt a burning sensation. Though many would assume that was part of the potion, she knew differently, and immediately started coughing. If left untreated, her throat could inflame and prevent her from breathing.
Harry, upon hearing her cough, immediately grabbed her and thumped her back to prevent her from coughing up a lung.
Her hacking continued, and Harry frantically tried to think of the antidote, racking his brain hard.
"Wormwood!" he exclaimed, plunging his hand into his bag and grabbing a bottle of the substance. He took a pinch and opened Hermione's mouth (easier said than done as she was still hacking) and placed it on her tongue. She stopped coughing in an instant, but then Harry realized on hand was on her stomach, holding her in place, and one her shoulder.
She gazed at him for a moment, then, in a moment of boldness, kissed him. Not hard, not passionate… she just…kissed him. As soon as she had kissed him, however, she pulled away.
Noticing her sore throat mysteriously gone, she said, "I'm so sorry! I mean, I guess it was just me trying to cough again but I'm sick and it didn't work and then I…" But she didn't finish her sentence because in the moment she started speaking he put his lips on hers and she was surprised to find herself kissing back.
This time, I ws her who pulled away once more.
"We shouldn't have done that." She said, blushing and looking down.
He gazed at her a while, then he looked down as well.
"Yeah, I guess not."
They looked down for a moment, not looking at each other, but then they turned their faces towards the others.
"But we wanted to." Said Hermione. "Didn't we?"
"Yes." Harry answered. "I think we both did."
"Then why not?" she asked, kissing him again.
That winter, and for all the winters after, Hermione didn't have quite such an aversion to winter and being ill-in fact, she rather enjoyed it.
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AN: pounded out in about an hour for a bet with a friend. Hope she likes it.
-Cassiopeia
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