Back again, thanks for your reviews people, they warmed me. Still non-betaed so please forgive any errors.
A hug to remember.
He should have guessed it.
Yes of course they would not be able to go the distance to the room of requirement without anybody seeing them, if he is not "the boy who lived" anymore, he sure is "the boy with Hermione on his back who ran into Peeves"…
Apparently even poltergeists can look surprised, Harry thought, while still trying valiantly to walk decently with `her!' on his back.
"Hermione?" he asked after stopping by a statue of Merlin to catch his breath. "Mphhyah?" she mumbled with her head still dug deep into his robes.
"Will you let go of me when we get to the room of requirement?", he asked and felt the small nod again against his back, "ok then, well we better get going fast or perhaps run into Peeves again", he resolutely straightened himself and walked the last corridors to the place.
Why on earth do you have to walk by that blasted door three times to get it to reveal itself!?, Harry thought, and on top of that he had to do it with a girl on his back, albeit not a heavy girl at all, Hermione was so small compared to him and Ron, but what she lacked in height and width, she made up for in intelligence and fierce loyalty. But having her jump onto your back and off is one thing, walking to the room of requirement from the Gryffindor common room is a whole other thing. Harry was not build heavy or anything, and the years at the darn Dursley's did nothing good for his physical appearance, he was infact skinny and non muscular although playing Quidditch had surely helped a little.
He was getting very tired now and the last steps into the room were not in a straight line anymore. He slumped head first against a column right inside the entrance.
"Hermione, please jump off me now…I a little tired now", he told her, but this time he felt her shaking her head. "Why not?!?!?, please Hermione this is absolutely ridiculous!" he was almost shouting now from irritation and exhaustion.
"I'm am sooo embarrassed from this and I cannot have you look at me at the moment!", Hermione squeaked out in a tiny voice, Harry could almost feel her radiating waves of blushing against his back and he actually understood her predicament, especially since he was the one who saw how the whole Gryffindor common room reacted to her actions.
"Hermione, it's okay, you can let go of me and we will talk, please?" he tried to untangle her hands in front of his robes but she just shrieked into his back and took a harder hold on him.
Godric Gryffindor must have possessed him looking back, because his actions after trying to pull Hermione's hands off his robes were something quite un-Harry like. But it worked.
"Ok, Hermione, just remember that it was you who put yourself in this position, and that I am only trying to make you see sense again?", he could feel her head lift a little and almost saw her golden brown eyes light up in confusion in his head.
He bent his head down.
And the next thing Hermione felt was Harry tongue licking a large part of her right hand, all the way up to her knuckles that had turned white from holding on to him. Hermione's eyes widened with shock and she squealed loudly while letting go, letting go of all of him!
*FHWUMP*
Hermione hit the floor with her backside and gave a little heartfelt yelp. "Ouch! Harry!, I hurt my bum!" she complained while trying to get up from that embarrassing position on the floor.
Harry was delighted that the weight of her was finally gone and he almost got goose bumps on his back from the coldness of the loss of her body, he was smirking at her in a gentle way while giving her a hand to help her get upright again.
Hermione was meticulously cleaning her backside with her hands and setting her clothes right again all the while she was staring a hole into the floor, she dared not to look at him, she was so ashamed of herself and her actions spoke volumes of her state of mind.
"Aaah this is so much better", Harry said while stretching grandly and looking back at her, "how's your bum?" he casually asked her.
Hermione's eyes went directly to his and almost at the same time down again while a new blush adorned her head; "fine!" she tartly replied and stopped cleaning her robes. Since her hands did not have a job to do anymore they began fretting at her sides. She took a large breath of air and slowly looked up at him again.
Hermione was having a hard time breathing regular since the piercing gaze of Harry did nothing soothing for her mind, and body for that matter.
Harry saw how she reacted to him scrutinizing her features, and loving what he saw, the small mole at the base of her throat, the well defined eyebrows, her small but sweet earlobes, her lips and how they could make the day worth living when smiling at him, her small frame that belied the fierce, sweet, caring, loving and needed to be loved soul that was Hermione. She smelled of cinnamon, books and ink, that was Hermione and he would recognize that combined smell in a room filled with other people.
Who was he kidding, he had already fallen head of heels for this woman, this female that would walk through fire for him, and come out on the other side clean and nagging him about his schoolwork. Harry smiled at the thought.
Hermione on the other hand was at a complete loss as to what kind of look was on Harry's face at the moment of his thoughts, she had never really seen that look before, oh sure, she had memorized all of his looks, that's why she knew she had to react so fast before he managed to escape in the common room, but this one, this look was new. If she had to categorize and catalogue it, and of course she had to, she would say that he looked like a man that had found the source of life, a man that had asked the question, why are we here? And then gotten a positive answer. He looked like a man in love.
That last thought brought Hermione's senses to a halt, everything began to move slowly and she felt like someone had dropped a big bucket of hot water all over her, and then a cold one right after that. She had never been so sensitive to details in Harry face than she was at that precise moment, his scar, his green eyes and the wrinkles at the sides when he smiled, his sweet nose that was smaller than normal but still sweet, and his great big mop of unruly black hair, and dimples!, he had dimples, she was amazed at discovering them, they were so small but still there, and the thin lips of his that were at the moment smiling shyly at her.
They were in fact moving right now, but she didn't really hear any sound come out, or did she?
"Hermione?" he was saying, "are you ok? you don't have any pain anymore do you?" he was concerned now since she didn't react at all to his questions.
"Ok is bum sore" she said, and then silence. Harry widened his eyes at this, he had never in his life heard Hermione say anything like that, completely butchering her grammar with that one sentence. He could not help himself, he began to laugh, first in small chuckles but soon he was bending over and hooting with laughter, all the while Hermione was smiling weakly at him and blushing over her little mistake, well to most people the mistake was small, but this is Hermione we are talking about, and she just knew that she would never hear the end of it.
Harry finally stopped laughing and looked at her again, and yes, that darn sweet look was back, but also mixed with a look of uncertainty.
"Did you mean what you said? you know, in the common room, before all this?" he asked her.
TBC.
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