Chapter 5 part 1
All review replies will be posted in the second half of this chapter; we just really wanted to have something out to you before the holidays. Happy Turkey Day everyone!!!
Also, we kept forgetting to put this in, House Rivalries aren't what they are in canon…everyone pretty much gets along with everyone.
Onward!
"You did WHAT?" Hermione asked, her eyes going wide.
"I knocked him out." Harry replied matter of factly. It was just after lunch on Saturday, and he had cornered Hermione to tell her about Justin.
"Have you gone mad?" she asked, lowering her voice. "You knocked out the Head Boy? What if he goes to Dumbledore?"
"He won't." Harry adjusted the shoulder of his scarlet and gold Quidditch robe. Gryffindor was playing against Ravenclaw after lunch that day, he was supposed to be on the field already but he'd wanted a minute to talk to Hermione. "Besides, if he rats on me for smacking him around, he'll also get into trouble because he roughed you up too."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked uncertainly. "I'm not worth getting into such trouble." She lowered her head a tiny bit.
"That's not true Hermione," Harry looked around then leaned in closer to her. "Besides, I got Draco to agree not to show off the underwear unless Finch Fletchley tries anything else, then his bright pink knickers will be flying above the Hufflepuff stands."
Hermione gasped and began to giggle; Harry leaned back and grinned. "I can't believe how handy that gift turned out to be." She said between fits of laughter.
Harry snorted. "Trust Finch Fletchley to dig himself into a hole on his own. I don't get how he was made Head Boy in the first place…"
"Another one of life's greatest mysteries I suppose." Hermione said, a smile gracing her face as she gazed up at Harry. They both grinned at each other, going red as they remembered nearly kissing each other the night before.
"Well…uh…I suppose I'd better get down to the field." Harry said a moment later. "You coming to the game?"
"Of course." Hermione said quickly. "I'll be rooting for you…er…I mean Gryffindor."
Harry felt the blood rush back into his face at her slip up. "All right…. so I'll see you afterwards…tonight in the library?"
Hermione nodded, trying to cover up her embarrassment. "I'll see you later."
Harry nodded and turned to rush outside, he needed to feel some cool air on his burning face. Jumping on his broom, he flew to the Quidditch field where the rest of his teammates were already gathered.
"It's about bloody time Harry!" Ron Weasley, captain of the Gryffindor team, was giving the rest of them a pep talk.
"Sorry." Harry said. "I had to talk to someone and I lost track of the time."
"Anyways, we know that we're the best team…" Ron went on and Harry stopped listening, instead he found his mind wandering to Hermione. He wondered how he should act around her now, he figured he had made his feelings clear the previous evening when he'd almost kissed her…but he wasn't sure, she hadn't acted much differently around him at lunch. Harry jerked back to attention when he heard Huw Watkins and Alyssa Whitley, both 5th year Gryffindors, start the announcements.
"We have Weasley, Potter, Radcliffe, Watson, Adams, Dunn and Swieca!" Alyssa's voice screamed out the Gryffindor team's names as they flew out and around the field. The crowd, mainly the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, with a few Hufflepuffs, roared their approval as Harry and Ron did a few loops, slapping each other a high five as they flew past.
"Malfoy!" Huw shouted, and the Ravenclaws and the majority of the Hufflepuffs went wild. "Reynolds! Trinity! Bickell! Campbell! Conners! Johnson!" the Ravenclaw team went swooping out weaving their own pattern over the field.
Harry grinned at Draco as he looked over at the Slytherin stands. His green eyes swept over the crowd as he tried to see if Hermione was there yet. A few moments later he saw her with Blaise, the two of them were bundled up in their black cloaks and green and silver Slytherin scarves. A burst of happiness shot through him and Harry pulled his broom up sharply and did a few daring spins and dives.
"Something's sure got you happy." Draco remarked idly as both teams got into position to start the game.
"You could say that." Harry said back as they flew to opposite ends. Madam Hooch released the balls and blew her whistle, and Draco and Harry both took the opportunity to rise above the action.
"This have anything to do with Hermione Granger?" Draco asked perceptively as they circled around the field, Draco lagging a bit behind so it looked as if he were tailing Harry in his pursuit of the Snitch.
Harry looked back. "Yeah…you were right."
"I always am, especially when it comes to the ladies." Draco boasted, feigning a look of concentration.
Harry mock glared back at him. "Not always, but sometimes." He looked forward again so he wouldn't smash himself into the stands. "I don't know what to do about her though."
"What do you mean?" Draco asked.
"Well…" Harry wasn't sure where to start. "I told you already about Finch Fletchley, but I didn't tell you what happened before that."
"Did you snog her or something?" He pulled ahead of Harry a bit, and both of them dove down, pretending they were racing for the tiny golden ball.
"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!!" Alyssa screamed with excitement. "TEN ZERO!"
"No." Harry replied, pulling up sharply and soaring back into the air. "Well, not really."
"No, not really…" Draco pursed his lips, his white blond hair flying behind him.
"Well…I wanted to, and I think she wanted to as well…. and we probably would have if that jerk off didn't interrupt us."
Draco snorted. "He won't mess with her anymore, not after you beat the shit out of him and I have his pink undies." Both boys laughed.
"But really, do you think I should kiss her, what if she doesn't like me that way and then doesn't want to be friends anymore…" Harry said uncertainly.
"Potter, either you kiss her or I will!" Draco announced, circling Harry swiftly. Harry stared at his best friend with his mouth open. "I was kidding!"
Harry's look of shock quickly turned to one of sarcastic annoyance. "You're so damn funny Malfoy."
"I know." Draco replied. "Really though, she seems to be smart…she probably won't run if you plant one on her." With that, he zoomed away and across the field.
Hermione held her breath as Harry and Draco both went into a long dive, and released it as they both pulled up sharply.
"Honestly, he's going to break his neck." She said to Blaise, who was watching Draco with keen interest.
"I can't believe I never noticed before how cute Draco Malfoy is." Blaise said.
"Blaise!" Hermione tugged on her friend's cloak.
"Right, sorry, breaking his neck. Why would you want him to do that, I thought you loved him." She replied.
"Honestly." Hermione rolled her eyes and snatched the Omnioculars from Blaise's hands. She trained them in on Harry, watching with a silent sigh as he flew in crooked patterns all over the field. He did a few loops in the air; just for fun she was sure, as the Snitch was nowhere it sight it seemed. Suddenly, he pulled his broom around and looked straight at her.
"Oh Merlin's beard!" Hermione gasped, almost dropping the Omnioculars on the ground.
"What?" Blaise asked, her gaze still fixed on Draco.
"He just caught me watching him." Hermione said, embarrassed.
"So?" Blaise turned and looked at her. "You almost snogged his brains out last night and you're worried about him catching you looking at him?"
The match went on for a while, both sides scoring and were now tied 70 - 70. Harry and Draco both seemed to be quite bored, and they were now concentrating on finding the Snitch.
"Is that what you two do when he takes you flying?" Blaise asked as the two girls watched Harry pull another spectacular dive.
"Goodness, no!" Hermione said. "He knows how scared I am…well…was, of heights, so he took it really easy on me…except for when he was being a goof." Hermione smiled as she remembered how Harry had gone high and shown her the view of the countryside.
Harry swerved around a goal post, trying to find the tiny golden glimmer. He hated it when the ball was above the Gryffindor stands, all the scarlet and gold detracted from the shiny colour of the Snitch. He glanced again for Draco, who was flying around the Hufflepuff stands, and then looked again at the Slytherin area at Hermione. She'd been looking at him through the Omnioculars, he could tell, and that had pleased him immensely.
"Come on, you bloody thing, where are you?" Harry's thoughts returned to the game. He flew around for several more minutes as Gryffindor scored another goal. Then he saw a golden glimmer above the Slytherin stands, it was the Snitch! Harry threw a quick glance to see if Draco saw.
He had. Draco was racing across the field towards the Slytherin stands at top speed. Harry flattened himself against his Firebolt and shot off as well, Draco's Nimbus was no match for Harry's broom; they were neck and neck within just seconds.
"They're going to fly right into us!" The girl in front of Hermione screamed. Blaise looked startled.
"She's right, Hermione, they're headed right towards us!" Blaise cowered.
"Harry won't hit us." Hermione said calmly, grabbing the Omnioculars back and focusing them in on the two boys. Both had extreme looks of concentration etched on their faces, Hermione nearly fell over at the gleam in Harry's sensual green eyes.
"Are you crazy, they're AHHHH!" the girl in front of them screamed and Blaise pulled Hermione down with her.
Harry and Draco skimmed over the top of the stands; the Slytherins could feel the breeze as they shot past. Harry gripped his broom with one hand and reached out as far as he could, edging past Draco and grabbing the Snitch with his fingertips.
Pulling up, Harry let out a loud whoop as he held the struggling Snitch in his gloved hand. Ron answered his call from across the field, overjoyed that Harry had once again won a match for Gryffindor.
Hermione and Blaise stood up and cheered loudly from the Slytherin stands as Harry waved the Snitch high above his head. He grinned widely as his eyes ran over the crowd, and his gaze locked with Hermione's. She laughed and waved at him as he gleefully pounded the air with his fist.
The rest of the Gryffindor team rounded Harry, screaming and shouting with happiness. He knew he wouldn't get a chance to talk to Hermione until later when they were in the library, so he just gave up and celebrated with his team for the time being.
***** ***** Later that evening ***** *****
"That was a spectacular win for you, Harry." Hermione said as she shut the large textbook set on the table in front of her.
Harry grinned. "Thanks." He said. They had come to the library together after dinner and had been working steadily for two hours. "Did you like that bit where he and I flew right over the stands?" he asked impishly.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You planned that?"
"No!" Harry widened his own eyes. "But Draco and I got a good laugh from everyone's faces." He replied innocently.
"Prat." Hermione grinned, scratching her quill over her parchment. "I'm finished!" she crowed triumphantly.
Harry glanced down at his own parchment. "I still have a page and a half to go."
"Ha." Hermione said smugly.
"Will you help me?" Harry asked.
"No way." Hermione stretched her arms over her head and leaned back in her chair.
"Please?" Harry asked again, with a little plea in his tone.
"No." Hermione said, closing her eyes and fighting the smile that threatened to spread across her face.
"Pretty please?" Harry asked, pushing his lower lip out. Hermione opened her eyes.
"Uhhh! Fine!" she said and he jumped from his chair and slid into one next to her.
"Thanks Hermione." He said, grinning widely at her. Hermione blushed and said nothing; she tried to concentrate on the information in the book.
"I'll dictate, you write." She said, running her tongue over her lower lip. Harry shifted in his chair as he saw this, all the memories of almost kissing her the previous night came rushing back again. He pushed them from his mind as she talked, and wrote furiously.
"…and so Sarah Goode was burned a total of 87 times, which is a set record to date." Hermione finished, and Harry scrawled the last words and dropped his quill with a flourish.
"Finished!" he said happily.
"Thanks to me." Hermione quipped, gathering up his scrolls and adding them to the large pile. "I can't believe we've finished this." She said, arranging them all neatly together. "Twenty five scrolls on the complete history of witch burning, that's not an easy thing to accomplish."
"No it's not." Harry said, flexing his hand, all the writing had cramped it up. "We make a good team."
Hermione paused for a moment, and then started tying the scrolls together. "Yes we do." She murmured; she wished he were referring to something else.
Harry reached over and grabbed a few scrolls. "I can help you with that." He said, and they worked in silence. Both of them realised at that moment that their nights in the library were coming to a close, and it saddened them.
"Boy, I wonder what I'm going to do with all this free time I'll have now that we've finished." Hermione said, trying to keep her voice light.
"We could still go flying together." Harry said quickly. "I still have to turn you into a lean mean flier." They both laughed.
"I think that'll be awhile, I think if I were to go on my own broom right now I'd only be about fifteen feet from the ground at the highest." Hermione said.
"Ahhh I'll get that out of you." Harry said mischievously. "I'm telling you, I can be very persuasive."
Hermione dared not look at him; she knew he'd be gazing at her with those deep green eyes of his. She didn't trust herself enough to not reach over and finish what they'd tried to do last night. They finished tying the scrolls and Hermione stacked the library books in a neat pile to be returned to the shelves by Madam Pince.
"Hey do you want to get out of here?" Harry asked a minute later.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Like go for a walk or something?" he said. "Just over the grounds, maybe even do a bit of flying…"
"Sure." Hermione said, her voice a bit higher than usual. "I need to get my cloak though, and I want to take these back to my dormitory."
"All right." Harry said. "How about we meet by the main doors in ten minutes?"
"Okay." Hermione nodded, grabbing the scrolls. She dashed off at top speed, throwing the scrolls on her bed and grabbing her warmest cloak. Throwing it around herself, she tied it at her neck, and inspected herself quickly in the mirror.
Slapping at her cheeks a bit made them a tad pinker; Hermione also dug through her drawer for the tiny pot of lip gloss that Blaise had given her. She rubbed a bit on, and then forced herself to breathe.
"It's just a walk, just a walk, and it's just a flying lesson." She told herself, and then ran back out to the main hallway.
Harry was leaning against the wall as she approached. "Ready?" he asked, smiling at her.
"Yes." She answered. He held his arm out and she looped her hand through it. Suppressing a giggle as Harry thoughtfully held the door open for her, they both stepped outside as the early March air nipped at their faces.
"Bit warm for early spring…" Hermione heard herself saying as they started walking down the path.
"Yes it is." Harry replied. "It's nice for Quidditch, not warm like back in September."
"It looks like it might rain." She said, looking up. Dark clouds loomed overhead, they were thickly swollen with rain.
"Aye." A cooler breeze blew at them, and Hermione shivered. "Cold?" he asked.
"A little." Hermione looked up at him. "What was that I said about it being warm?" they both chuckled.
"Maybe…this will help." Harry unhooked her hand and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her against him. "Body heat." He said, a bit nervously.
Hermione suddenly felt hot all over, and she knew it had nothing to do with the temperature of the air. A lump rose in her throat. "Will it be too windy to go flying?"
"I don't think so." Harry replied, absentmindedly moving his fingers against the fabric of her cloak. It was all Hermione could do to keep from gasping aloud at his touch.
They had almost reached the Quidditch field when a bright bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, thunder immediately following.
"Now that's a problem." Harry said, disappointed. "Lightning."
"Yeah." Hermione frowned, a bit upset; she'd been looking forward to being on a broom with him again.
Both of them stood looking at the clouds, and all of a sudden, the skies opened and rain was pouring down over them like a waterfall.
"Run!" Harry shouted, and they both turned back to the castle.
As disappointed as she was, Hermione couldn't help but laugh as they slipped and fell in the wet grass. "We're already wet, running won't help us now." She said.
"Good point." Harry blinked; his glasses were so wet he couldn't really see through them.
"Here." Hermione reached up and pulled his glasses from his face. Taking her wand from her pocket, she tapped the glasses with it. "Repelius." She said and the rain began to bounce off the lenses, not allowing them to be wet.
"Wow." Harry said as he slipped them back on. "That's amazing, how did you know to do that?"
Hermione shrugged modestly. "It's just a simple charm." She replied, the telltale blush making its appearance on her cheeks. She started walking again, raising her face so the rain could cool it off.
"What's so interesting up there?" Harry asked, coming along side of her, bumping her shoulder with his.
"Nothing." Hermione answered. "I love the rain, sometimes at home I go outside and just walk around during a storm. It's very calming."
"I suppose so." Harry replied. "I never tried that."
"I would recommend it, especially if you're feeling stressed out." Hermione replied. She shook her hair out; it was going to bush up so badly later, she knew it. 'Oh well… at least I'm here with Harry now.' She thought. That thought warmed her from head to toe, spreading a carefree, happy feeling throughout her whole body. Without even realising it, she raised her arms above her head and began to twirl around.
Harry stared open-mouthed as Hermione spun around, her hair flying out behind her. He'd never seen anything more gorgeous in his life.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"You can't fully appreciate rain until you've twirled." Hermione answered dreamily, her eyes closed.
"Well, guys don't twirl." Harry answered. "At least not alone," he hinted.
Hermione stopped and faced him. "Come on then." She answered, holding her hands out.
"What?" Harry asked, pushing his rain soaked bangs from his eyes.
"Come on!" she repeated, coming forward and grabbing his hands. "We'll whirl around together."
Their laughter rang gleefully as Harry and Hermione whirled in lopsided circles across the lawn, drawing nearer to the castle with each turn. Both were soaked to the bone, but had never felt warmer as they fell against one another, breathless and dizzy.
Panting, Harry leaned against Hermione. "That was fun." He said.
"Aye it was." She answered, turning her head to look straight at him.
Greedily sucking air into their lungs, their gazes met. Hermione felt her heartbeat quicken as Harry's eyes turned dark like they had the night before, and she tried not to tremble under the look he was giving her.
Harry moved his face closer to hers while sliding his arms around her waist. He rested his forehead on hers; Hermione slid her hands up over his chest. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back, awaiting the pressure of his lips on hers. He felt like trembling as her hands moved across his torso, and his eyes shut as well as he closed the remaining distance between their lips and sealed his across hers.
Hermione gasped in pleasure as Harry's mouth pressed against hers. She raised herself up on her toes and his right hand swept up her back and into her wet locks, threading them between his fingers.
This was not enough for Harry; he wanted to feel more of her. Tentatively and unsure, he touched his tongue to her closed lips.
Hermione pressed herself tighter against Harry as she opened her mouth to him, she could taste peppermint, he must have had something before she'd gone to meet him. Running her hand around his neck, she gently stroked the hair at his nape. She was feeling absolutely ecstatic, after three years she was finally getting what she'd been longing for.
They kissed hungrily as if their mouths were food, small caresses and slight moans the only sound other than wind, rain, and occasional thunder. Breaking apart moments later, Harry and Hermione were only able to stare at each other.
Bahahaha! You asked for it, you got it, half of chapter 5! Second half will be posted next week after Heaven comes back from vacation. R/R, and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it!