A/N - Thankyou to everyone who reviewed, I'm glad you're all enjoying the story so far. I hope this story answers some of your questions about where I'm going with this.
Oxford Undercover - chpt 3
The following morning at precisely 6:45 am Hermione was rudely awoken by her supposed best friend (whom she was now convinced was actually a Death Eater in disguise) when he cast a tickling charm on her sleeping form. After jumping about a foot in the air, and then threatening him with every painful curse known to wizard kind, she remembered that she had (stupidly) agreed to go for a run with him this morning. It was part of her training program to increase her overall fitness as well as lessons in defence that he would be giving her. Five minutes later she was up and dressed in her Lycra fitness pants matching tank top, her hair back in a pony tail, and ready for action.
Upon entering the kitchen she found Harry in sweatpants and a t-shirt with his head in the fridge.
`I put some bottles of Gatorade in here for us to take with us when we go for our jog.'
He emerged from the fridge holding two bottles of bright blue liquid and turned to Hermione to pass one of them to her, catching sight of her for the first time as he did so. His mouth dropped open and his eyes bulged.
Hermione looked down at herself suddenly paranoid that she'd forgot to do something important like put pants on. `What?'
`Nothing, it's just, that outfit is really tight Hermione.'
Hermione snatched the drink off him, `It's supposed to be Harry, its lycra. This is what girls wear when they work out.'
Harry sounded chocked, `I've never seen a girl wear something like that to work out in.'
`Are we going to stand here talking about my clothes or are we going to go for that jog?'
Harry wisely decided not to push the issue any further, `Jog'
`Good.'
So they set off, the tiny row house that Hermione shared with her two room mates was convenient not only due to it's location directly across the road from Queens College (where her course was based) but it also backed onto one of those delightful private walled gardens shared by the block of residents. It was around this garden that they took their jog; they determined that two laps would be a good way to start building Hermione's fitness, but Harry found he was not focusing on the exercise like he was supposed to. He wasn't even distracted by the beauty of the garden its serenity only enhanced by the morning frost that clung to the trees and the complete absence of any other inhabitants this early.
In fact jogging alongside Hermione in her extremely tight Lycra pants and tank was doing the exact opposite of clearing his mind; it was instead fogging it up in a way that he usually found very pleasant, but in a way that he had equally never equated with Hermione before. There was just far too much movement going on underneath all that tight Lycra. So he jogged faster to try and stay a little bit ahead of her, so he couldn't see as much, but then he hadn't considered her naturally competitive nature. Every time he got slightly ahead of her she would speed up and outpace him, leading to an all too alluring view of her rear end tightly encased in that evil material and working hard as she jogged a little faster.
By the time they completed their first circuit of the garden they were both panting and flushed and Harry was seriously debating the wisdom of a second lap. He felt was in desperate need of a cold shower, and his condition was only partly due to the exercise. Hermione was ahead of him at that moment so he couldn't call a halt to things he could only speed up again and try to stay ahead of her without killing herself. It seemed that Hermione was in far better shape than he'd given her credit for, and so the sweet torment continued. By the time they were nearing the halfway point on their second lap Harry's resolve had faltered and he instead found himself simply enjoying the view.
When they got back to Hermione's apartment Harry practically sprinted into the bathroom for his cold shower and slammed the door behind him, leaving a very bemused Hermione in his wake. He leaned against the door panting hard, jogging with Hermione every morning was going to be sweet torture, he just hopped she wouldn't wear that wretched outfit when he started showing her self defence. Or maybe he thought, as he imagined them wrestling, hot and sweaty, he hoped she would wear it. Shaking his head to rid himself of these naughty thoughts he turned on the faucets for what he suspected would be his first of many cold showers.
`Morning Hermione,' Gina said stumbling into the kitchen.
Gina's hair was tousled from sleep and she was still wearing her oversized purple flannel pyjamas and bed socks, when she saw Hermione she frowned sleepily in her direction.
`What are you wearing that for?' she asked accusingly.
`Harry and I went for a jog this morning. He's gone for a shower.'
Gina nodded, `Jogging in the morning is not something I could do even for a guy as hot as Harry. As far as I'm concerned you can have him. Hayley may want to fight you for him though.'
Hermione scoffed, `Well regardless of how hot Harry may or may not be he and I are just friends.'
`Right, and I bet if you were going jogging with me you would have worn that too? I don't think so, that was for his benefit and we both know it.'
`Don't be stupid, we were working out so I wore a workout clothes that's all.'
`Yeah and I bet he's not in there having a cold shower either.'
Hayley stumbled out of her room pink dressing gown wrapped tightly around her and hair askew, `Who's having a cold shower?'
`Harry is. He and Hermione went jogging and she wore that.'
Hayley opened one eye and stumbled over to the coffee percolator on the bench, `Were you intentionally trying to give your "friend" a heart attack or are you really that clueless.'
`Well excuse me but I guess I'm really that clueless, I thought this was what girls wore to work out.'
`It is if they're trying to score with a hot young guy at the gym.' Hayley responded dryly.
She took her first sip of coffee and seemed to perk up. `Seriously Hermione that Harry of yours is hot stuff, but I believe in the sisterhood, if you like him then I will steer clear. But,' she held up a finger of warning, `if you continue to insist that there is nothing between you but friendship then I will be forced to put the poor boy out of his misery and seduce him myself.'
Hermione looked between her two friends miserably wondering how things had come to this so quickly, Harry hadn't even been in the house for twenty four hours and already she felt like she was back at Hogwarts again, with girls asking her if Harry really was available.
`It's only fair Hermione, if you don't want him then there's nothing wrong with Hayley giving it a try.' Gina said seconding the motion.
Now she had to respond, but she felt torn. If she told them they were only friends then she would have to spend the next four weeks watching Hayley trying to seduce Harry. But if she told them she was interested in Harry "that way" it would open up a whole other can of worms, there was the possibility that Harry could find out, or that her flatmates would try and "help" her seduce him. In the end however she was saved the trouble of answering.
`Good morning ladies!' Harry said jovially as he swung into the room looking bright eyed and bushy tailed.
He was greeted rather unenthusiastically by the ladies there assembled, but pushed on oblivious. He was too busy trying to cover his own feelings of awkwardness under forced cheerfulness to notice any one else's discomfort.
`Shall I get some breakfast started or do you girls not eat in the morning? I know you used to Hermione.'
`That'd be great thanks Harry.' Gina responded smiling at him.
`Thanks I'm famished.' Hayley said brightly, then quietly under her breath to Hermione, `he cooks too? We will definitely finish that conversation later.'
`What about you Hermione?'
`Sure thanks Harry.'
Sitting there in the kitchen watching her friend make conversation while he cooked breakfast for them, Hermione found she couldn't help but think about what her flatmates had said. They were looking at him from a completely objective position and most importantly they had not had their vision clouded by any of that "Boy who Lived" nonsense and they thought he was a great catch.
Truthfully Hermione now had to say that they only knew the half of it. She would happily admit that her best friend had grown into one extremely good looking man, tall and slender but with hard defined muscles, a strong jaw, beautiful piercing green eyes and gorgeous messy black hair. That his hair never sat in any kind of order only lent a sort of little boy vulnerability to his otherwise quite rugged appeal and the glasses made him seem more mature and studious. Even his scar, even if you didn't know all that it represented, just gave him the hint of danger that women everywhere find so appealing.
But going beyond mere looks Harry was a genuinely sweet guy, his very presence here after the mere hint of perceived danger to her person was a testimony to that. He gave great hugs, always listened when she wanted to talk (even if he couldn't offer any advice), would massage tired and sore muscles, he had a good job and to top it all off (as Hayley rightly pointed out) he cooks. What more could a girl ask for? Surely, to just blithely allow some other girl to try for something more with him would be stupid. Hermione Granger was not stupid, but she did suspect she'd been rather blind where Harry was concerned.
It seemed as though in her rage to be one of the few people who considered him normal, and not fall for the hype, she had completely overlooked how special he really was. Sitting there in the kitchen and seeing her friend of nine years cook breakfast, seeing him through the eyes of strangers, strangers who knew nothing about his fame or his skill on the quidditch pitch was a revelation. She felt like the scales had been removed from her eyes and she finally saw that Harry really was a wonderful guy in his own right, without any of the wizarding stuff. She thought for a moment how she would feel if Harry and Hayley did get together or if it was Harry and some other girl, not as a teenage romance but as the real thing, how would she feel if Harry fell in love with someone else? She would be devastated, plain and simple, because for all of their talk of friendship it was actually love. It had not been planned, it had not been expected, but it could not be denied either. The question now was, what on earth should she do about it?
`One egg or two Hermione?' Harry asked hand poised over the carton.
`Two thanks.'
Harry smiled at her and turned back to his cooking. Just like that she knew, he had absolutely no idea that she might feel something more for him than friendship, anymore than she had a few minutes ago. How could she let him know how she felt when she'd only just realised she even had theses sorts of feelings? He wasn't just any guy, she couldn't just set out to seduce him, he was her best friend. The situation required a certain amount of delicacy. She thought back to her abortive quasi "relationship" with Ron. There was no way she was going through something like that again.
The conversation around the table filtered through her troubled thoughts,
`There's an amateur, ah, soccer league around here that has practice on today. I thought I'd go and check it out and I'm sure once I've done that there's plenty of other things to keep me busy around Oxford.'
`Oh absolutely, and you know if you ever get bored you can usually find us in the Library.'
Harry laughed, `Be like old times eh Hermione? You and me in the library, you studying and me trying not to fall asleep. Thanks for the offer but I think I'll pass.
The truth was Harry had already told her that he planned to tail her all day wearing his invisibility cloak. Hermione remembered Hayley's whispered comment that the conversation would be continued later and groaned silently. There was no way she could avoid the conversation and there was no way she could avoid Harry being privy to it either. In light of her recent revelation she had even less idea of how to answer Hayley's question now than she did previously.
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