Hey guys, I'm really nervous about this one! I hope you like it… :-S
Disclaimer: J.K. is the genius, Harry and co. are hers.
Niffling
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As Harry rose the next day he felt like he hadn't slept at all, and the only way he knew he had was by the weird dreams he could vaguely remember that had plagued him in the night. He dressed quickly and realised it looked like it was going to be another bright day, if only he didn't have to be stuck in lessons for all of it.
As he made his way down to the common room, he saw Hermione and Ron deep in conversation and made his way over hesitantly. Hermione noticed him approaching and hugged Ron, then moved away to Ginny who she left with.
"Alright mate," Ron said yawning, "Hermione was just saying she was going to spend some time with Ginny, says Ginny was upset about something or… something. Anyway, she said it wasn't serious, so I reckon let the girls sort it out for themselves."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, he had been concerned Hermione might have decided to let slip about last night to Ron, and was grateful she hadn't done so. Harry didn't know what Ron's reaction would be, but he didn't know what he would say to Ron either.
At least with Hermione having made her excuses plain to Ron Harry didn't have to keep dodging questions about her all day, but he couldn't avoid her that afternoon in Double Potions.
"Hey," Ron greeted Hermione as they approached her leaning against the dungeon wall. Harry couldn't help noticing her flushed cheeks from the warmth of the day, and it reminded him strongly of her flushed face the night before. He looked away before she noticed the look in his face, and led the way into Snape's classroom. They seated themselves around their traditional desk, Harry helping himself quickly to one of the end seats. Hermione took the hint and tried not to be hurt by it, after all, she thought, if she'd have been first she'd have done the same, and still would, placing herself on the other side leaving Ron in the middle.
Hermione concentrated hard on what Snape was saying as he introduced another difficult potion for them to master, as she couldn't bear the thought of Snape picking on her more than usual and possibly guessing the reason if she messed up her potion. Annoyingly, Snape had decided that this potion was complex enough to warrant them working in pairs, and it seemed he had already deduced that something was amiss between Harry and Hermione as he sneered down at them.
"Granger and Potter, lets see how you manage, whilst Weasley can work with Longbottom." He swooped away with a billow of black cloak as Ron barely suppressed a groan; working with Neville in potions was a sure fail for the days work.
"Good luck guys, see you at the end," he said, gathering his things and moving away.
Harry and Hermione sat in silence for a moment, then both began talking at once:
"I -" Harry started.
"We -" Hermione tried. They both stopped and Hermione looked away, wishing she were with anyone but Harry, even Malfoy. "We need to sort out the ingredients first," she said, delving into her bag for her potions set, and Harry followed suit. "Some of the ingredients have to be cut with a special knife on a particular surface, and the others have to begin brewing."
"I'll cut," Harry said hastily, he'd burnt too many potions in the last few weeks to last a lifetime, and didn't think it'd be a good idea to do it again in front of Snape.
Hermione nodded and passed him some ingredients and then, hesitating, she began to write down how to cut each one and what with, so that they wouldn't have to converse as much.
Harry watched as she wrote and once again cursed himself for getting into this mess, unable to believe that rather than watch him minutely to make sure the potion didn't go wrong, Hermione would rather just let him do it to save talking to him. She flung the list at him and he picked it up carefully. As he read through the list, he noticed a drop on the page that looked suspiciously like a tear stain next to the instruction of: "severe the dragon heartstrings and slice thinly". He glanced at Hermione sheepishly, but she was now focusing so hard on the task ahead she didn't seem to notice his look, and, not seeing any trace of tears, he turned away and began to work.
Hermione brewed the rest of the potion to perfection, and then tidied away what she could. Eventually, when there was no other excuse, she turned back to Harry to see where he had got to. She watched his hands move; they were quite graceful as they carefully peeled and sliced and chopped, and she couldn't help remembering where those skilled hands had been last night.
She cleared her throat loudly as if to dislodge the thought, and Harry glanced up, and then passed her the finished ingredients. Hermione took them and consulted the book before saying,
"We have to do this bit together."
"What?" Harry asked, sounding harsh, and Hermione retaliated by shoving her book in front of him.
"One has to stir while the other pours them in. It needs two wizards, one won't do." She concluded, throwing down the book and picking up the tray of ingredients in one hand and the stirrer in another. She passed the tray to Harry without looking at him and started to stir the potion slowly. Harry began to pour in the ingredients, and against her better judgement Hermione found herself correcting him, unable to stop herself. "Not like that, you're doing it too quickly. It has to be slower so that they all dissolve properly."
Harry held back a retort and simply followed her instructions. After all, he decided, she's still the best witch in the year - academically. As his concentration slipped, he accidentally sprinkled some powder onto Hermione's hand which he hastily tried to wipe away lest it be some dangerous ingredient. He quickly put the tray down and brushed Hermione's hand lightly with his before she even realised what had happened, and with his touch she jumped and splashed an amount of their potion over the floor.
"What are you doing?" she yelped as she grabbed a cloth and moped up the spilt potion.
"I just got something on your hand that's all; I was trying to wipe it off!" Harry retorted angrily, then, noticing Ron was looking over curiously, he dropped to his knees beside Hermione and grabbed the cloth of her, finishing the job.
They finished the potion in complete silence, not getting any closer than absolutely necessary, and at the end still managed to hand in the best sample of the class, not that Snape said anything like it.
As Harry packed his bag Hermione grabbed her things and moved to Ron, he thought he heard her saying something about spending the evening with Ginny and gratefully kept his distance from her for the rest of the night.
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The next few days passed in near complete silence for Harry and Hermione, she still spent her evenings with Ginny, and Ron always sat between them in class, though this was something he didn't find odd at all, and thankfully just accepted Harry and Hermione's quietness for boredom or their feigned excuses of illness.
One day, Ron had insisted on finding the girls at lunch time as he needed to speak to them about homework and family, and Harry reluctantly trailed after him to the blazing sunshine outside. They found the girls alone, sunbathing next to the lake, and Harry nearly had to dive straight into it to cool himself down. Hermione had taken off her usual black tights and ruffled up her skirt to let the sun get to her legs, as well as having unbuttoned the top several buttons on her shirt. Harry's eyes slid over her and he cursed himself for noticing her body now, and how he could see a flash of lacy bra peeking above her shirt.
Hermione rolled onto her front as soon as she realised Harry was there, and pulled down her skirt to cover her legs more. She could hardly put her tights and shoes back on without making it obvious though, and had to make do with turning her face away from Harry in the act of sunbathing. She couldn't help but remember the last time Harry had seen her bare feet, and curled her toes up at the thought of his gentle hands.
"Hey girls, how's it going?" Ron asked happily, flopping himself down beside Hermione. She gave a non committal noise and pretended to be trying to sleep.
Harry strode away from the others as Ron embarked on a conversation with Ginny about some distant relatives birthday party and how they could best avoid going. Reaching the water's edge Harry occupied himself skimming stones across the waters surface. The past few days without much contact with Hermione had been strange, but sort of good too. It had meant Harry didn't have to think about what had happened, what he'd done… Losing his concentration Harry launched a stone into the lake that sank straight to the bottom, splashing noisily as it hit the surface hard. Harry turned away, frustrated, just to see Ginny come towards him. She had also unbuttoned her shirt slightly and, always having been a bit more daring than Hermione, her skirt stopped a lot higher on the leg. Harry watched as she approached him, smiling slightly and brushing her long red hair out of her face. Harry forced a smile onto his face and hugged her as she drew level with him.
"Hey Ginny," he sighed into her hair, breathing in her scent and squeezing her tight to him.
"Hey Harry!" said Ginny in a teasing tone, surprised but pleased at his attention, but gently drawing herself away from him. He wouldn't let her fully go though, and kept his arm draped around her shoulders. He looked into her green eyes, a softer shade than his own, but friendly and sparkling, as different as he could get from Hermione's deep brown gaze. Harry forced his concentration back to Ginny and openly admired her figure with teasing eyes.
"Well you've certainly caught the sun," he grinned cheekily.
"Oh no!" Ginny cried, looking down at herself, "have I burnt?"
"No…" Harry replied, reaching out to the unbuttoned shirt and gently stroking the exposed skin, "freckles," he smiled at her, brushing the few freckles that had appeared there.
"Oh…" Ginny blushed, not used to Harry treating her like this. "Are you… are you ok Harry?" she asked tentatively, trying to read his emerald eyes.
"Sure," he said, flippantly dismissing the question and getting back to flirting with Ginny. This was the way to get Hermione out of his head, he encouraged himself, it was just that he hadn't been close to a girl for a while and the other night just happened because of that. But Ginny was a much safer option - he would enjoy her attention and that would sort him out. "Just taking pleasure in great beauty," he said gently, tracing the edge of Ginny's face with his hand. Her eyelids fluttered and she leaned almost imperceptibly closer to him. He copied her actions and the distance between them slowly began to close.
"Harry!" Ron called, "C'mon lets get some food - I'm hungry."
Harry's hand dropped from Ginny's face and he gave her a casual lop sided grin, as he replied to Ron, "Sure," locking eyes with Ginny again as he added quietly, "I'm hungry too." Ginny blushed up at him and pushed him away playfully, so he turned towards Ron, who hadn't noticed a thing as he was packing his bag, to make their way to the castle.
It was only then that he realised Hermione had rolled back over, and had watched the whole thing.
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"Did you see?" Ginny asked Hermione for the hundredth time that evening, and Hermione suppressed a frown as the topic rose again.
"Yes I saw. He looked really into you," she added reluctantly.
"Yeah…" Ginny replied, lost in her thoughts of Harry and that afternoon. "It's just, I had kinda started to like Dean…" she mused.
"Really?" Hermione asked, sitting up, "Well, you shouldn't ditch Dean just 'cause it's 'Famous Harry', that wouldn't be right." Hermione admonished severely.
Ginny looked up at Hermione's tone.
"I know, Hermione," she agreed, "But it's not that is it? I mean, I used to really like Harry didn't I? Head over heels type stuff. I thought I'd sort of got over it, but if he starts paying attention…" she trailed off thoughtfully. "Oh I don't know!" she concluded eventually. "Still, it's nice to get some attention isn't it?!" she joked happily, turning back to her books.
Hermione agreed within the privacy of her own head; it certainly was nice to get attention. She just wasn't as sure how nice it was to watch that attention going to someone else. She had a sudden flashback of Ginny and Harry's faces drawing closer, his hand gently resting on her face, leaning in towards her. Hermione felt a burst of hatred and hurt, and decided she didn't want to remain in Ginny's company anymore that night.
"I'm off to bed," she said as normally as she could manage, not quite able to look into Ginny's face as she gathered her things and left.
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Harry leaned over Hermione's sun warmed figure as she lay back on the grass outside in the vest and shorts from that night. He smiled down at her, enjoying just watching her.
"Oh Harry," she sighed, and this time he didn't run, but leant down and kissed her lips gently, enjoying the warmth of her mouth, the taste of her tongue. He pulled away and looked down, then yelled out as he realised it wasn't Hermione but Ginny.
"Are you… are you ok Harry?" Ginny asked tentatively, trying to read his emerald eyes.
Harry yelled and woke with a start. Ron was shaking him,
"Harry! It's just a dream; it's OK!" his friend comforted him, looking concerned.
Harry's breathing returned to normal and he caught his breath as he realised it had just been a dream, then found himself slightly disturbed that it was actually worse than that - it was some sort of miss-matched memory.
"I'm fine," he said eventually, realising Ron was worried about what he'd seen. "Just some stupid dream about, uhh, spiders," he invented, and it had the desired effect as Ron recoiled shuddering.
"Ugh, fair enough mate, that's enough to make anyone yell. Anyway, let's go, I'll meet you in the common room, see if Hermione's up."
Ron left and Harry reluctantly started pulling on his clothes unable to grasp quite how he'd managed to make the Hermione situation even more difficult by flirting with Ginny. He sighed and sloped down the staircase, expecting to find Ron alone by now, as for the past few days Hermione had shot off with Ginny before Harry had risen properly. He was surprised when he saw her standing with Ron, and blinked at her presence as he approached them.
Ron turned at the sound of Harry drawing closer, "Here she is!" he said triumphantly, "Hermione's back with us today 'cause Ginny's got a day in the forest monitoring unicorns." Ron supplied happily, seeing Harry glance at Hermione.
Harry realised he couldn't very well ignore this as Ron was obviously pleased to have her back. "Hey," he said quietly, as Hermione fiddled with her hair, not looking at him.
Thankfully Ron was once more too preoccupied with thoughts of his food for him to notice that Hermione didn't answer, and he led the way down to the great hall with Hermione keeping pace and Harry trailing behind. As they reached the Entrance Hall they saw Ginny preparing to leave with her class. Harry caught her eye and winked as he went passed and she flashed him a cute grin in response.
Well, Harry reasoned, he may be making things more complicated, but complications like Ginny weren't exactly a bad thing for a teenage boy.
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"Thank God, finally some freedom!" Harry smiled appreciatively. He and Ron were on their way down to the Quidditch pitch for practise, and getting away from Hermione felt like a great release to him.
"What are you on about?!" Ron teased him, "we've just had two free periods!"
"Oh… yeah but… y'know we were still with - uhh our books…" Harry concluded lamely, but thankfully Ron seemed to catch his drift.
"Yeah I know what you mean, free periods sounded great at the beginning, but now we've realised how much work we actually need to do and they get filled up easy."
Harry murmured an agreeing grunt, his mind not really on the work, but more on the excruciating hours of that afternoon, with Ron insisting they all work on the same thing at the same time so that he could get as much help as possible.
Unfortunately, it had been quite a hands-on afternoon. First of all they were trying to plot an astronomy map together, and every time Harry's hand brushed Hermione's, they both recoiled as if they'd been burnt. At one point Ron had noticed and exclaimed, "What the hell is up with you two?! You keep jumping into me and smudging my work!" to which Harry, not for the first time, could not think of an answer to and Hermione, not for the first time, had to rescue him from, muttering: "static shock."
That had been nothing, however, to when Ron had insisted upon practising him stunning spell on them -
"It'll be fine, look, I'll stun Hermione and she'll fall on the pillows then you can use enervate on her Harry, to wake her up again."
The thought of Harry leaning over her as she lay upon the deserted common room floor was too much for Hermione to bear, and she made her objections obvious from the start.
"That's ridiculous Ron; you don't need both of us to practise with! You and - him - do it and I'll go and do my Runes work." She suggested easily, already picking up her bag and making her way to the door.
"Not so fast missy!" Ron said grasping her hand as she went past, "I can't do enervate yet so I'll need all the help I can get!" he smiled happily.
After several more escape attempts, through which Harry sat silently looking through a DADA book, Hermione eventually ran out of ideas and concluded that she had to go a long with it.
She collapsed repeatedly onto the pillows set out for her, and repeatedly had to awaken to Harry's face, inches from her own, gazing down at her. He looked away quickly each time as soon as he was satisfied he'd woken her, and let her help herself up, just as she'd had to all those nights ago.
Harry shook the thoughts of her sleeping face from his mind as they got closer to the pitch and his eyes focused on Ginny, who was in the group of the rest of the Griffindor players waiting for the practise to start. He watched Ginny move between the other players, laughing easily with her friends, and trying to restrain her hair that was blowing in the soft breeze. He couldn't help but feel something primal inside him stir, and tried to ignore the gnawing knowledge that it was nothing compared to how Hermione had made him feel. Of course it's not, he reasoned, Hermione was near naked and laid out in front of him for him to do what he wished with her; looking at Ginny in her Quidditch robes and protective pads was hardly the same thing.
He kicked off the practise and pushed aside the thought of the girls, he needed to concentrate on Quidditch now.
After a few hours they traipsed back into the changing rooms and Harry went to the little office to draw up some more Quidditch tactics that he'd got ideas for in the days practise. He thought everyone had left as he finished up his plans but the sound of a shower suddenly stopping made him realise he probably wasn't alone. He turned back into the changing rooms just in time to see Ginny emerge from the showers with a towel wrapped around her.
"Harry!" she screamed, nearly dropping her towel in fright. "Oh my God, you scared me to death! What are you doing here?"
Harry grinned sheepishly at her trying to cover as much flesh as possible with her large towel.
"Oh, just taking pleasure in great beauty," he repeated from their last encounter, and noticed her blush as he advanced towards her, enjoying watching the drops of water from her shoulders run down her body. As he came closer to her, Ginny moved slowly backwards, until he'd backed her up against the wall and she couldn't escape his body, pressing carefully against her.
"You know Ginny," Harry said quietly, "You're meant to ask permission before using the showers. I think you owe me an apology." He whispered as he leaned down to her so that their lips were almost touching.
"I'm sorry," Ginny gasped against his mouth, and as her lips moved they brushed lightly against his.
Harry looked down into Ginny's face and told himself to kiss her, kiss her now, just do it. But try as he might, he couldn't help but compare her face to Hermione's, couldn't help but compare the shape of her lips and the curve of her cheek.
A noise made them break apart and Harry came back to himself as he took in the sight of Ginny, breathing heavily leaning against the wall, looking over his shoulder. He turned to see what she was looking at, where the noise had come from, and couldn't believe how bad his luck was.
"Oh." Said Hermione, in a shocked voice as she stood in the doorway and took in the sight of Ginny in a towel and Harry next to her, just having turned from her face.
"Hermione, I - " he started, but Hermione cut him off, not looking at him and instead turning to face Ginny.
"Ron's looking for you Gin. I had to pop to Hagrid's so I said I'd check here. He's looking for you, anyway." She finished, and walked out of the door into the now dark night.
Ginny moved to gather her clothes and head for a cubicle to change in, whilst Harry still stood rooted to the spot, mind reeling.
"Ginny, I - " Harry tried, but this time Ginny cut him off and, smiling, said:
"It's OK Harry, I get it. Nothing happened, right?" and made her way to a cubicle.
Harry stared after her and couldn't move for the thoughts in his head. Eventually he came to, and, realising he didn't want the awkward walk up to the castle with Ginny, headed off without her.
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Hermione gasped and choked on her sobs as she ran through the castle to the first safe haven she could find - the Prefects bathroom. Thankfully no one was in there as it had got quite late, and she collapsed in a heap in the far corner.
How could he do this to her? How could Harry, her best friend, do this to her? She sobbed as she played the sequence back over in her head as she opened the door and saw Harry's body pressed against Ginny's, seemingly just having broken a romantic kiss. Ginny had only been in a towel, Hermione hated to think what else might have happened down in the changing rooms, had they done more than kiss? Had he touched Ginny with the same fingers he'd touched her with?
The sobs racked through Hermione's body and she hated how hard she cried, hated how much she cared what Harry did. She didn't blame Ginny - even in their time alone together Hermione hadn't confided to her what had happened with her and Harry, and Ginny had said she welcomed the attention from Harry… No, it was him to blame. Her mind threw up flashbacks of all the times they'd had together, when he first rescued her from that troll, how he'd always tried to look out for her, to keep her from harm.
Well, she thought bitterly, just because he'd saved her from Death Eaters and Voldemort she had still ended up getting hurt, and she couldn't imagine that even Crucio could cause as much pain as she felt now.
Exhausted, she hauled herself up and began to turn taps to fill the gorgeous, massive tub in the middle of the room, and poured in thick, scented bubbles to relax in, even as she did so remembering Harry's description of the room and the different taps before they were even allowed down here, when Cedric had let him enter.
She choked back another sob and stripped off before lowering herself into the hot water and lying back to relax. She breathed in the scents and let the warmth of the bath ease her knotted muscles. She washed her face and felt better for wiping the salt tears away, losing them in this giant tub, and wished she could do the same with her pain.
Eventually she began to wash herself and her hair, grateful for the warmth and time alone to relax.
No sooner had she had the thought than the door began to open, then, seemingly of its own accord, swing shut. Hermione held her breath not sure whether to yell or stay quiet, when suddenly Harry emerged from under his Invisibility Cloak.
He obviously hadn't noticed her yet, hidden in her think blanket of foam, and she watched as he collapsed by the edge of the pool sized bath, sighing heavily. He removed his glasses as they began to steam up, and wiped his face as if exhausted, resting his head on his knees.
Hermione was frozen. She was naked in the same room as the boy who was breaking her heart, and he was totally oblivious to her presence. She glanced around the room, looking for some kind of escape, and realised her only hope lay in the Cloak Harry himself had just taken off. Reaching silently for her wand, Hermione stopped as she realised Harry was beginning to undress, and, cringing slightly at the awkwardness that would bring she grabbed her wand and muttered, "Accio cloak!" causing the cloak to begin to glide across the floor towards her. However, Hermione had to admit Harry obviously wasn't the Chosen One for no reason, as he whipped his wand out at lightning speed and pointed it directly at Hermione, who froze, caught in the act.
Harry scrabbled for his glasses, and when he managed to get them on they confirmed his nightmare, Hermione was in here, in the bath, in the bathroom. She was naked and Harry wasn't far off himself.
"Hermione-" his speech was cut off as Hermione sent a jinx flying towards his face which he had to dodge.
"Protego!" he yelled, and a shield instantly formed in front of him, blocking the multiple jinxes Hermione sent in his direction. Eventually she stopped, realising it was no use, and warily lowered her wand. Harry flicked his to break the shield, and for a moment thought he'd be regretting it as he saw Hermione's wand hand twitch. He gave an involuntary flinch but nothing came his way, so he cautiously waited for Hermione to speak.
"Close your eyes." She said in a voice barely above a whisper, not looking at him.
"What?" he asked, confused.
"Close your eyes," she repeated again, quietly.
"Hermione this is no time for games!" Harry burst out angrily, only to get Hermione's retaliation in full force as she screamed:
"Close your fucking eyes, Harry! I know you've seen most of my body by now but I'm not letting you see anymore!"
Harry blinked, shocked at the outburst, but realised she'd just wanted to get out of the bath, which he could understand as the thought of her in there was rather confusing him too. He turned away and tried not to imagine her as he heard her slip out of the bath and walk across the room.
"There," she said, granting him permission to turn around, and as he saw her tanned body swathed in one of the bright white Prefects towels she bitterly added, "Isn't this how you like your girls, Harry? Just a towel around them?"
Harry winced at the bitterness in her voice and looked away from the tears running down her face.
"What's the matter, Harry?" Hermione questioned harshly, "Can't stand to look at me? What, is it because I'm so fucking useless compared to Ginny? Or is it because you can't stand to see what you've done?"
"What did I do?" Harry asked angrily, unable to accept the blame, unable to admit that she was right. He couldn't stand to see how badly he'd messed things up, how much he'd hurt her.
"YOU USED ME!" she screamed in reply. He looked up into her face and after a few moments pause she repeated: "You used me, Harry."
Harry cast his eyes down, his mind whirring, not wanting to accept the reality of it all. Had he used her? He hadn't meant to… he'd just wanted her so much and had acted on it. He didn't think that counted as using her, but as he looked up at her he realised she already knew he didn't understand.
"You just don't get it, do you Harry?" she whispered, letting more tears run down her face. "You used me, and you don't understand how you let it happen."
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That's the end of this chapter.
I'm sorry! Harry will stop being a jerk soon… I promise!