A/N: Well we've gone back to what we do best, R rated stories…*grumbles about no NC 17* Anyways, we hope you'll enjoy it!
Disclaimer: We don't own anything HP related. If we did, we'd be the rich bitches, sitting in some tropical climate with Colin Farrell and Sean Biggerstaff waiting on us in loincloths…*ahem* sorry…yeah we don't own it.
His lips moved over her skin like it was made of silk, every so often stopping in one spot to nibble gently on her flesh. She ran her hands through his hair, threading the strands between her slim fingers.
"Oh, Great Wizards!!" her voice came out as a gasp. Her hands moved down from his hair to his chest, where she lightly stroked him. His muscles contracted under her touch, and she noticed his breathing was becoming short and erratic.
"Do you know what you do to me?" he whispered in her ear, before gently nibbling on it.
"Just shut up." She commanded, before crushing her mouth to his, their tongues duelling and clashing, their bodies becoming slick with sweat in their passion. His palm curved over her shoulder, and then began to make its way down the slope of her collar and over her breast. He tore his mouth from hers and began to kiss her neck once more, sliding his hand lower, letting his fingers trail lightly over her as she began to moan his name.
"Harry…"
"Hermione!" the bed began to move underneath them.
"Oh…Harry!"
"HERMIONE!" the bed began to shake harder.
"Blaise?" Hermione Granger squinted as the face of her best friend came into view. "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"
"I'm TRYING to wake you up!" Blaise Zabini said, tapping a long, polished fingernail on the bedpost.
Hermione groaned as her dream slipped completely away from her. "Blaise you have the absolute worst timing in the world, do you know that?"
"Dreaming about Harry again?" Blaise teased. "Why don't you just do something about it?"
"It's easy for you to say." Hermione muttered, throwing back her covers and going to her trunk for a clean uniform. She pulled out an extra thick sweater; the castle was so cold in January. "Guys fall all over you."
"They could fall all over you too, if you'd just let me-" Blaise began, but Hermione waved her friend's hand away.
"Don't bother." She replied, shuffling off to the bathroom. "I'll be out in a minute."
Blaise sat down on the unmade green and silver bed. She felt bad for her friend, she knew Hermione had been crazy about Harry Potter ever since their fourth year at Hogwarts, but she'd never done a thing about it. They had plenty of classes together; Slytherin and Gryffindor were often mixed, they'd had Potions and History of Magic together ever since first year.
A smile crossed Blaise's face as she recalled how she and Hermione met, it had been on the train to Hogwarts their first year, they'd been reaching for the same Chocolate Frog and instant friendship had occurred. From that day on, they'd been nearly inseparable, even during the summer Hermione often spent at least half the holiday at Blaise's home in northern England. Even during their troubled adolescent years, their friendship had stood fast, although Blaise had gone more the way of boys and Hermione had clung steadily to her bookworm habits.
"Ready for breakfast?" Hermione interrupted Blaise's thoughts as she came back into the room and tossed her nightgown in her wardrobe. An idea struck Blaise like lightning, and she jumped off the bed.
"Hermione, I'm going to do you a huge favour!" she announced.
"What's that?" Hermione asked warily, picking up her loaded bag and slinging it over her shoulder.
"I'm going to make you over, so that you'll knock Harry's socks off!" Blaise said proudly.
"Blaise, no." Hermione argued. "We've been through this before, I don't want you to give me a makeover. I'll never keep it up." Her friend wanted to give her a new look at least once a week. "Besides, I've always said if a guy can't respect me for who I am and not for my looks, then he won't respect me at all!"
Blaise sighed and followed her friend. "But Hermione…"
"No Blaise." Hermione said firmly. "Come on, I'm hungry." They went down to the Great Hall together and sat down at the Slytherin table.
"Look there he is!" Blaise hissed loudly and motioned towards the Gryffindor table where Harry was also just sitting down with Ron Weasley, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan. A few spaces down Harry's entourage of female admirers cast admiring glances and bright smiles his way.
"Blaise would you please keep quiet? I don't want the whole bloody population of Hogwarts to know!" Hermione cast her an angry glare. At that moment, food appeared on the dishes before them, and the chatter in the Great Hall rose as everyone heaped their plates full.
As the two girls finished eating, Blaise noticed Harry and Seamus rise from the Gryffindor table. An idea formed in her head and she grabbed Hermione's arm.
"Come on, I forgot a book I need back in my dorm!" she said as she pulled Hermione away from the table.
"But Blaise, I'm not finished-" she was cut off. Blaise slowed down to a walk as they neared the doors, and right as they were by Harry, she pretended to trip and shoved Hermione directly into him.
"Ow!" Harry and Hermione both yelled at the same time. Hermione fell on the ground, but Harry managed to steady himself.
"I'm SO sorry, I must have tripped on something right there!" Blaise covered her mouth in fake embarrassment.
Hermione glared up at her. "Sure you did." She muttered under her breath.
"Are you all right?" Harry asked, holding out his hand to Hermione. After a moment's hesitation, she took it and he pulled her to her feet.
"I'm fine…" she managed to say, her face bright red. "Thanks."
"Sure, no problem." Harry said. He bent down and picked up a few of her books that had fallen out of her bag. "I think you'll want these." He said, handing them to her.
"Thanks." Hermione said again, mentally wanting to smack herself. Couldn't she say anything else?
"Well, see you around…" Harry replied when she said nothing else. He turned and walked down the corridor with Seamus, turning back to smile at her one more time before disappearing up the staircase.
Hermione advanced on Blaise menacingly. "That was the MEANEST thing you've ever done!" she said angrily.
"What?" Blaise wore an expression of the purest innocence. "I tripped!"
"Like hell you did." Hermione was mortified. She stuffed the books back into her bag and stalked down the hall.
"Oh, come on Hermione, I did that for your own good." Blaise defended herself. "I mean, now you can say you've actually touched him."
"Just shut up." Hermione replied through clenched teeth. The two girls entered the Arithmancy classroom right as Professor Vector shut the door behind them.
*** *** *** *** ***
Hermione gave Blaise the silent treatment all through the rest of their classes. She was thankful that they didn't have any with the Gryffindors that day; she wouldn't have to face Harry until tomorrow. She really was angry with Blaise for pushing her into him like that; he must think she was a huge klutz. It was riding on her mind so much she was unable to study that afternoon, and that made her angrier.
"Hermione?" Blaise's voice was uncharacteristically quiet.
"What?" Hermione's tone was icy as she regarded her best friend.
"I'm really sorry about earlier." She said.
"No you're not." Hermione replied, looking back down at her book.
"You're right, I'm not." Blaise said. "I'd be lying if I said it were true."
"Could you please just go away?" Hermione snapped.
"Come on, you know you can't study in here, it's too noisy." Blaise was referring to the noise of Hermione's roommates, Pansy Parkinson, Parvati Patil, and Hannah Abbott. "Come on, my common room is empty." Blaise was Head Girl, and they had their own set of rooms.
Hermione bit her lip; Blaise knew she hated to study in her dormitory. "Fine." She muttered, gathering up what she would need and tossing it in her bag.
"Come on, Hermione, you can't be too mad at me about this morning!" Blaise said as they entered the Head Common Room that she shared with Justin Finch Fletchley of Hufflepuff.
"Can we just drop it?" Hermione asked. She was tired of the topic already. "Fine, no I'm not mad." She dropped her bag on the table and pulled her books back out. Blaise grinned and did the same; both girls worked on their homework for a while.
"You know what?" Blaise said about a half hour later.
"What?" Hermione asked, looking up.
"I think you need to spice up your life." Blaise replied.
Hermione dropped her quill and rubbed her eyes. "Blaise, really, could you just knock it off?"
"No, really!" Blaise leaned forward. "In fact, I think we need to place a wager."
"I don't have any money." Hermione snapped.
"Just a friendly bet then, no money." Blaise refused to be deterred. "I'll bet that by the end of the year, you could seduce Harry Potter."
Hermione stared at her. "This is your dumbest idea by far." She said flatly. "By FAR!" she picked up her quill and began to write again.
Blaise looked back at her a moment, and decided to beat her at her own game. "You're right, that is a dumb idea." She leaned back and twirled her thumbs around. "I don't know what I was thinking."
Hermione ignored her and kept scratching her quill over the parchment.
"To think that YOU could seduce anyone!" Blaise laughed. Her tone finally hit the right mark, and Hermione raised her head in annoyance.
"If I really felt like it, I COULD!" she said angrily.
"Sure. Then why don't you try?" Blaise asked lightly.
"Because it's not in my nature to do something like that." Hermione replied.
"I think you're scared." Blaise challenged. "I think you know you wouldn't be able to."
A determined gleam entered Hermione's eyes. "You know what? Fine. You're on!"
"Excellent." Blaise sat back contentedly.
"You tricked me!" Hermione realized instantly.
"It's so easy sometimes." Blaise said lazily. "But you've agreed, you can't back out now."
Hermione sighed, knowing her friend would make good on her word. What had she gotten herself into?
"Now, for the wager part…" Blaise tapped her chin.
"You said no money." Hermione reminded her.
"No, no money." Blaise said. "But we need something…ah! If I win, and you don't seduce him by the end of the year, then you…. have to give me that locket of yours that I love!"
"Blaise I'm not giving you that locket it was my grandmother's." Hermione protested.
"But you said you could win this bet, so you won't have to." Blaise replied smoothly before Hermione could argue any more. "And if you win…"
"You have to buy me that set of Wizarding Encyclopaedias we saw in Diagon Alley this past summer." Hermione finished.
"Deal." Blaise said instantly. She stuck out her hand and Hermione shook it firmly.
*** *** *** *** ***
"Now today, like I said, I will be pairing you off for your research compositions." Professor Binns said as he floated around the room.
Hermione sat on the edge of her seat as she waited to hear who she would get paired with. Professor Binns had told them of this assignment before they'd left for the Christmas holiday and she had taken that time to compile a list of topics on what she'd want to do it on.
"Hannah Abbott and Ronald Weasley." Binns read as he nodded to the two students. "Dean Thomas and Pansy Parkinson. Blaise Zabini and Neville Longbottom." Hermione suppressed a giggle as she imagined the look on her friend's face; Neville was a nice enough guy but completely accident-prone. "Let's see here…Hermione Granger and Harry Potter…" Professor Binns droned on, but Hermione no longer heard him.
'I'm working with Harry Potter, oh Great Wizards he's paired me with Harry Potter!' Hermione's insides churned with excitement, but somehow she managed to pull off an outer calm. She sneaked a peek over in Harry's direction and he smiled back at her and gave a friendly wave.
"I would like you to get into your pairs and decide on your topic." Binns said, floating back up to his desk. Hermione was about to get up and go by Harry's seat when he appeared by her side.
"Hi Hermione." He said, sitting down at the desk that had just been vacated by Blaise. "You're not going to knock me over this time are you?" he teased.
"Oh…no" Hermione felt her face flush a bit. "I'm sorry about that, Blaise thinks it's funny to shove me into people for some reason."
Harry laughed. "So have you thought about any topics?"
Hermione brightened. "Actually, I have, I have a whole list of them." She took the neatly printed parchment from inside her textbook. Harry brought his head close to hers as they scanned it over.
"Here, how about the Salem Witch trials?" Harry asked, pointing to one. "I know a lot about witch burning."
"All right." Hermione said. "Let me go tell Professor Binns." Harry nodded and she got up. "Professor?" she asked as she approached. "Harry and I decided to do the Salem Witch trials."
"An excellent topic, Miss Granger." Binns replied. "However, it's quite an extensive one. You two will be spending much of your time in the library over the next few months."
"That's fine." Hermione said. Nights in the library with Harry Potter? She didn't think it could get much better than that!
A/N: Well that's it for chapter 1! Please R/R!