Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise Harmony would have sailed.
A/N: My reply to the "Vigilante" challenge by Leochick, you can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26730 . Hope you will enjoy the story, and please if you read review and let me know what you think of it, ok?
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
The Vigilante
Chapter Two: Training, part I
That Saturday, like every weekend, Harry went to Hermione's flat. They had gotten into a routine of spending the day together, since Ron was always away with the Cannons and Ginny had moved to France with her husband. Neville was currently at Hogwarts as Herbology teacher so that left the two of them of their group of friends from school. Since both were currently single, they had decided they better not spend the weekend alone, and instead get together to relax a bit, maybe get lunch somewhere nice, and then go see a movie.
Imagine his surprise when he banged on her door, and no one replied. He tried a couple times more, thinking that maybe she had just been sleeping in and hadn't woken up yet.
It was strange though. In all the years of their friendship Hermione had never woken up later than eight o'clock, and right now it was half past ten.
The raven haired wizard was just about to unlock the door with his wand, worried that something might have happened to her, when he felt someone running up the stairs, and turned just to be met with the sight of a very sweaty Hermione, dressed in a sports bra and a pair of very tight shorts.
For a moment she seemed almost surprised to see him there, then she realized what day it was, and grinned.
"Harry! Sorry to have kept you waiting, I forgot today was Saturday" she said, unlocking the door and inviting him in.
Harry gulped as she walked past him, her hips swaying, her round bum wriggling in front of him with her every step.
"So…" he croaked, tearing his gaze away from her body. "Have you started running in the morning?" he asked, and she nodded, offering him a toast with strawberry jam, while she put the coffee on the fire.
"Yeah, I started a couple days ago, I haven't a lot of stamina yet but I can already see I'm improving" she said, obviously proud of her training program, and completely oblivious of Harry's discomfort at having her dressed like that. They were now sitting at her kitchen table and he could see her nipples pushing against the sports bra, which did nothing to hide how well developed her breasts were, the skin on her arms glistening with a thin layer of sweat, her brown curly hair styled in a ponytail.
She looked gorgeous, the hottest woman he had ever seen. Gulping again, he forced himself to focus on the conversation and not how good his female best friend looked.
He wasn't supposed to have those kinds of thoughts about her, right?
"Would you like to join me in my training program?" Hermione asked, putting her own plan into motion. If she could get him to help her tone her body, she would be much faster, given his experience both with Quidditch training in school and Auror training he would prove to be a valuable source of information on the most useful exercises and such. "Not that you need it" she hastily added, eyeing his broad shoulders, his tones arms, and wondering for a moment how would it be to be held by them, be crushed against his chest in the haste of a passionate kiss, how would it be to run her hands across those muscles of his.
Harry was no body-builder, but she had noticed how he had completely transformed from the scrawny eleven year old she met on the Express so many years ago into a young man with an imposing figure, a body that conveyed masculinity every time she looked at him.
Feeling the telltale tingle of her starting arousal settle between her legs, she knew she needed to stop staring, and forced herself to go check on the coffee, and bring him a cup of it, no sugar, as he preferred it dark and strong.
He nodded his thanks to her when she pushed the mug in front of him, and finally, after taking along sip, he answered her question.
"I'd love to. More physical training can't be bad, right?" he said, flashing her his signature boyish grin, and for a moment Hermione felt light-headed.
"Well, then, come on, you lazy pig. I'm already five minutes late for my push-ups and weight lifting!" she called, swatting him lightly on the shoulder as she passed near him, heading to the living room.
Harry followed her and was amazed to see it changed to a real gym.
"Don't worry, it's mostly transfigured equipment, it will go back to normal in a couple hours" she explained, and Harry followed her voice to the floor, where she was already doing some sit-ups.
The way her body moved was transfixing, and Harry found himself staring again, before he even knew it.
"What? Am I doing them wrong?" Hermione asked, self-consciously, when he kept gazing at her almost with his mouth hanging open. That shook him from his daze.
"Uh? No, no, you're doing them just fine" Harry said, starting to strip before joining her.
"I hope you won't mind" he said, after he had transfigured his trousers to a pair of shorts, "but I always do my training this way" he added, removing his shirt and remaining bare-chested.
"W-Why should I mind? I'm not much more dressed after all" she stammered, watching how his muscles moved under his skin as he started doing some stretching. When Harry finally joined her on the carpet, she was still staring, he caught her and smirked to himself.
"Seems I'm not the only one having fun watching" he thought.
All morning they worked out, and just before lunch they decided to have a shower.
Harry said he might better go change at home, but Hermione wouldn't have any of that.
"Nonsense, Harry. You're already here, and your shirt is not sweaty and when you change back your shorts to your trousers, they will be as good as new" she said. "You just need a good shower and you can do that here" she suggested. "After me, of course" she added then, smirking, as she ran inside the bathroom.
Harry dashed after her but she managed to lock herself in before he entered.
"Now behave, Potter, and no peeking, ok?" she called out and he grunted.
"You bloody witch" she heard him mumbling, and grinned to herself as she got under the hot spray of water, her hands caressing her skin, removing the sweat but also imagining it was Harry's hands running all over her. Merlin, how she would love to have him there with her right now!
She had always had a crush on him, since third year at least, but it was only during their Horcrux hunt that she came to accept the fact her fancy wasn't going away anytime soon, because she was utterly in love with him.
Sighing, she dried herself off, and after securing the towel around her body, she opened the door.
"Harry, you can come in now if you want" she said, wrapping her hair with another towel to dry it. Her best friend came in from the kitchen, a half eaten biscuit in his hand.
"Merlin, Hermione" he said, almost huskily Hermione noticed, "you want to give me an heart attack, don't you?" he said, snapping his eyes closed.
Hermione realized the reason of his reaction and giggled. "Are you embarrassed, Mr. Potter?" she coyly said, and heard him slightly groan before he rushed into the bathroom and locked himself in.
Hermione smiled to herself as she went to get dressed in her bedroom.
Meanwhile, Harry was taking a cold shower. Seeing Hermione with only that towel on made him want to take her right there in the hallway, but he suspected it was way out of line for best friends.
"But is best friends all I want to be with her?" he asked himself while he calmed down from his arousal.
It had been a while since he had started noticing signs of possibly being attracted to Hermione, the fact he had hated all of her boyfriends since she had broken up with Ron being the first, then there was the fact he always noticed how she furrowed her brows when something didn't please her, how she bit her lip in concentration, how she twirled her curls around her finger as she read…well, you get the meaning.
Resting his forehead against the glass of the shower stall, he sighed. He knew he was falling for his best friend and he didn't know if he had the strength to fight it. Heck, he didn't know if he wanted to fight it, either.
Finally turning off the water, he rinsed himself before he got dressed, and left the bathroom to go help Hermione with preparing lunch.
He would just need to be careful around her for the time being, and maybe having agreed on helping her with her training wasn't the smartest move in that sense.
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