Disclaimer: Did not create Harry Potter characters…sadly.
A/N: This was for a Halloween challenge on Portkey. Don't blame me if it is random, I was in a crazy mood.
Chained In Halloween
Hermione Granger leaned her face against the misty window and stared into the stormy sky. Fat drops of rain splattered against the glass and she could feel the wind sliding through the cracks in the window to make a cool draft in the already chilly room.
Tonight was the Halloween feast, but she didn't really feel like going. Not with Harry being there anyway. She had already had too many close calls with him lately.
It wasn't that she disliked Harry, infact, quite the opposite. Hermione Granger was madly in love with Harry Potter, who just so happened to be her best friend.
It would have been so easy to just tell him if she was sure he liked her back, but the thing was, he was too busy making sheep eyes at Cho Chang to even notice her feelings. Not that he would anyway, Cho Chang was everything a guy could want in a girl…and Hermione, well, Hermione was let's say, average at best.
She had bushy brown hair that was as untameable as Hagrid's. A body that was no curvier than a ruler and, apart from being extremely bookish, she also had the annoying habit of correcting people.
But she had her good points too. She was very compassionate, even to those who did not appreciate her efforts coughSPEWcough, and she was always willing to help, no matter how much it may inconvenience herself.
Hermione could only hope that Harry would see her for who she was and not what she looked like. She was pretty sure he was the kind of guy to be like that, but with Cho, it kind of made her think…
"Hermione, aren't you going to come to the feast?" Parvati asked while putting on some lip-gloss.
Hermione shook her head. "Not this time. I might just sneak down to the kitchens and pick up something."
"C'mon Parvati, we're going to be late!" Lavender huffed.
"Oh, right." Parvati squeaked and quickly checked her face in the mirror before following her impatient friend.
Hermione watched the door slam shut and sighed, collapsing on her bed. She stared up at the roof and blankly wondered what Harry was doing right now.
As her stomach gave a rather violent growl, Hermione decided it was time to get some food.
She was just making her way down the great staircase while dreamily thinking of the delicious food awaiting her in the kitchens when she suddenly found herself falling. With a gasp and slight twist of horror, she realised that somehow she had tripped over the trick staircase and was now hurtling very fast down the stairs towards somebody.
THUMP
Hermione dazedly sat up as someone groaned underneath her. Pushing her bushy hair out of her face, she gasped as she stared into the emerald green eyes of Harry Potter. His black messy hair was looking worse than ever and his glasses had fallen off from the impact.
Hermione suddenly realised that Harry had been talking to her and blushed furiously.
"What?" She said almost breathlessly.
"I said could you get off." Harry repeated laughingly.
Hermione blushed again. "Oh, right." She muttered.
It suddenly occurred to her that they were in a very compromising position. Her legs were either side of him, and her hands were pressed against his chest. Feeling rather awkward, she shifted slightly, completely oblivious to Harry's uncomfortable looks, and just as she was about to get up a loud screech pierced the air.
"You! You foul, disgusting pieces of filth!"
Hermione and Harry looked up to see Filch glaring down at them. His eyes were practically bulging out of his head and there was a nasty vein throbbing by his head.
"You shut my cat in the cupboard!" Filch roared, "Just so you can get up to your dirty mischief in the middle of the hallways!!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Harry said seriously.
Hermione frowned, "Mr Filch, we didn't shut your cat in the cupboard."
"Liars!" Filch snapped, "Why else would you be in that position on the floor right by the cupboard I found her in."
"I fell on him by accident." Hermione said very embarrassed. "We weren't doing anything."
Hermione could tell by Filch's expression that he did not believe her.
"Why aren't you in the Great Hall at the feast?" he suddenly barked.
Hermione groaned. All she wanted was to just have some food in the kitchens and stay away from Harry, but it seemed luck was not on her side.
"I didn't feel like going." Harry muttered, while helping Hermione to her feet.
"Of course you didn't!" Filch roared. "You wanted to get up to mischief in my hallways and I won't have it!" he practically squealed.
Hermione shook her head and tried to explain but Filch wouldn't listen. He seemed to be beside himself with rage and his face was steadily getting blotchier with angry red spots.
"Since you two would rather be naughty together then go to the feast, you can spend your Halloween in the dungeons." He said firmly and dragged them by the scruffs of their robes towards the dungeons, Mrs Norris following happily behind.
They walked in silence, being too embarrassed to say anything. Hermione desperately tried to regain her composure. She could feel herself blushing just thinking about being so close to him.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Filch swung open the dungeon door and pushed them roughly inside. Hermione's eyes instantly fixed themselves on the chains hanging from the wall but Filch directed them towards two wooden stools.
Hesitantly, Hermione sat down on the stool and looked up into Filch's leering face. She could see Harry sitting down on the other stool, looking around with a frustrated expression on his face.
"You'll both stay here until after the feast, in which I shall bring your Head of House to decide what to do about your disgusting behaviour." Filch said evilly and with flourish, waved his wand to make chains wrap themselves around Harry and Hermione.
Hermione gasped. She had always thought he was a squib, but as she heard him leave the room, she distinctly heard him mutter, "Thankyou Kwikspell."
The door shut with a snap and Hermione let out a moan of frustration.
"Can you believe this?" Harry groaned. "We're stuck in here, while everyone else is enjoying the feast! I heard they got a wizard band hired too."
Hermione wobbled her chair around a bit so she could see him better and frowned. "Why didn't you go to the feast?" She asked curiously.
"I was looking for you actually. Lavender said that you weren't coming."
"Oh, sorry. It's my fault we're in this mess." Hermione mumbled glumly, as her stomach gave another protest of hunger.
"Sounds like you need some food." Harry laughed.
Hermione nodded, "I was just on my way to the kitchens to get some food when I fell down the stairs."
Harry smiled slightly and then frowned, as though something had just occurred to him. He looked up at Hermione piercingly, "Why didn't you want to come to the feast?"
Hermione nervously avoided his gaze. This was dangerous ground. If she wasn't careful she could end up blurting out everything. "Well, I had a lot of work to do."
Harry looked a bit sceptical. "You don't have any work…unless this is an extra project?"
"Oh, you know, exams are coming up." Hermione said airily, "And you can never be too prepared."
Harry laughed but did not say anything, for which Hermione was very glad.
"What do you think Filch is going to do with us?" Harry asked after a long pause.
"I dunno." Hermione said thoughtfully. "We have no proof to say we were not having…" She broke off and blushed.
"Sex?" Harry said just as awkwardly.
"Yeah." Hermione muttered going pink, "That. So, I guess all we can do is hope they will believe us."
Harry nodded and another awkward pause followed.
"These chains are starting to really hurt." Hermione complained to break the silence.
"I know."
"I wonder if we could get them off." Hermione said thoughtfully. "I'm sure no one will care."
Harry shrugged, (Well, tried to shrug anyway) "It's worth a try. But I can't reach my wand at all."
"That does make it difficult." Hermione sighed.
Just then a distant cackle came from underneath them, followed by an evil looking little man wearing a bright orange bow tie. He appeared to be wearing a pirate hat and a patch in celebration of Halloween.
"Ooo, look at the ickle students put in the naughty seats. Should be ashamed." He tutted, waggling his finger at them.
Hermione rolled her eyes. Peeves was a poltergeist, and an annoying one at that.
"What do you want?" She muttered, resigning herself to listening to ridiculous taunts.
Peeves grinned and blew a raspberry, "I was just having a nosey and happened to spot you two and so I decided we should play a little game. If you win, I'll let you out of those chains and put in a good word for you."
Getting out of those chains seemed to be a good idea to Hermione right now, since they were digging rather painfully into her skin and here was a chance to prove they were innocent. But playing a game with Peeves didn't seem like a very safe thing to do.
"What kind of game?" Harry asked curiously.
Peeves looked at them through his legs as he tried to do somersaults, "Just a simple game of look away."
"Look-"
"-Away?"
Harry and Hermione stared at each other perplexed.
"What is that?" They said in unison.
Peeves grinned even more. "It's a simple game. I will face the wall and you have to get to the wall without me seeing you move. When I turn around you must be completely still, or else you have to go back to the beginning."
Hermione thought that didn't sound too bad but she still couldn't believe Peeves would let them off so easy.
"What's the catch?" She asked suspiciously.
Peeves looked rather offended, (well imitated looking offended), "There is no catch. I am simply in the mood for a game…but if you both fall over it's game over and I'll leave you in here."
"I knew there was a catch." Hermione muttered.
Peeves merely grinned again and started swooping around as he waited for their decision to be made.
"What do you think?" Harry asked Hermione. "Should we play his game?"
Hermione couldn't see whether they had any option. Being chained to a wooden stool certainly wasn't going to make it easy, but what choice did they have?
"I guess we should." She replied heavily. "Let's just hope neither of us fall over."
"Right." Harry affirmed. "Peeves, we'll play your game."
Peeves cackled and swooped to the other end of the dungeon. "Let the game begin!" he said happily and turned to face the wall.
Hermione nodded briefly to Harry before attempting to move. Because she was chained to a wooden stool and could not move her legs, that was not an easy feat. It seemed that the only way to do it was to grip the chair with her fingers and lift her whole body of the ground in a jump. It was very difficult and more than once she thought she was going to fall over.
Peeves, meanwhile seemed to be having the time of his life as he listened to them jump slowly along the dungeon floor. He was starting to get sneakier, as he looked back in shorter intervals and did double looks.
Hermione was starting to get tired and annoyed, as she was sent back to the beginning for getting caught moving. She glanced up at Harry who was almost at the end but too late; he fell over from his jump and could not get back up again.
"Harry!" Hermione cried, jumping towards him.
"I'm sorry Hermione." Harry said defeated, as he lay on his side. "I couldn't do it. I guess it is all up to you now."
Hermione could only stare at him, (for Peeves had just turned around).
"You can do it!" Harry said encouragingly, as he smiled.
Hermione nodded and stared at Peeves back with a determined expression. Quickly she took two jumps and paused as he swivelled around to blow a raspberry at her. Hermione ignored his taunting and quickly started jumping again as he turned back around.
Twice she thought she was going to fall, and even more was she almost caught for moving, but she remained calm and continued to jump towards the poltergeist, ignoring the horrible pain spreading through her body and the ragged gasps issuing from her mouth.
Finally she found herself directly behind Peeves.
"Y-you l-lose" She gasped before collapsing to the floor on her stool.
Peeves looked as though he couldn't believe he lost and Harry tried to shuffle along on his side to get to Hermione. But Hermione was too tired to care. She just lay on her side trying to catch her breath back.
Peeves removed the chains and scowled dreadfully before vanishing through the door.
"Hermione." Harry said happily, as he hugged her. "You did it!"
Hermione smiled and leaned into his hug. "I hope I never have to do that again."
Harry laughed and pulled himself away from her. Their eyes met and Hermione could feel a sudden heat rushing through her body, which had nothing to do with all the jumping she just did.
As if in slow motion his head leaned towards her and his lips came to rest against her own.
Hermione stared at him surprised as she blushed adorably. "Harry I-"
"I know Hermione." Harry said smiling. "I've always known. I guess I just needed to find the courage."
Hermione frowned, "But what about Cho?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't care about Cho. I care about you." He said touching her cheek gently.
Hermione couldn't help it, she laughed. After all this time he had cared for her and she had been so worried about Cho. "I've been so blind." She muttered.
"We've both been blind." Harry agreed.
Hermione nodded and leaned against him. "Perhaps it wasn't so bad us being chained in the dungeons after all." She mused.
Harry laughed, "I think you may be right." He concurred and leaned in to kiss her again.
Almost shyly, Hermione placed her hands around his neck as she leaned in to the kiss.
"Well, I always expected something like this to happen on Valentine's Day, but on Halloween?" Professor McGonagall said dryly from the doorway.
Hermione and Harry sprang apart in shock but were surprised to see a small smile playing around McGonagall's thin mouth.
"You can go. I'll talk with Mr Filch later."
Harry and Hermione nodded and quickly left the room.
Hermione couldn't believe how lucky she was. Though everything had appeared to be going wrong, in the end it had all turned right. Harry had admitted his feelings for her, and she even got a kiss.
The only thing that could complete her happiness now was a giant piece of chicken…
END
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