Authors' note: To all the helpful souls who made me aware of the fact that I had indeed spelled Seamus wrong repeatedly, this fix is for you. I'll be more careful next time, I can guarantee you that!
Chapter 5
Hermione was lying in her bed wide awake as the early morning sun began to rise above the horizon and push its way through the castles windows. She had been awake now for over an hour crying softly and thinking about all that had happened to her in the past twenty four hours. As devastating as the events of last night were to her, she could think of nothing else. Her pain was tremendous, but it was also strengthening her resolve.
"I won't let this destroy me, no way! I'm stronger then that," she whispered fiercely to herself as she wiped away what she vowed would be the last tears she would shed about yesterday.
An annoyed look crossed her face as she fidgeted in her bed trying to find a comfortable spot. She wasn't having much luck. She had been lying awake in the bed for too long. Her beautiful lingerie set, which was sexy and provocative last night, was now just a nuisance as she tried to get comfortable.
"Damn underwear, I need to get these off," she hissed. While the underwear was really not the reason for her discomfort, the lingerie was definitely a reminder of what almost was, and she now found them completely distasteful. She rolled over and looked around the room. Not a soul was stirring. "Good," she thought. Hermione quietly slipped out of bed, and forgoing her slippers, headed straight for her dresser. With a fresh set of clothes now in hand, she ran as quietly as she could across the cold stone floor to the bathroom. Once inside, she locked the door and leaned with her back against it for a few moments, all the while hugging her clothes tight.
Hermione nodded to herself. She had made up her mind. She now knew how she would handle her 'Harry' situation. She pushed herself away from the bathroom door and set about her business. "What happened between us was private," she mumbled under her breath as she padded around the bathroom. "Its nobodies business but ours," she told herself. "God, I really hope nobody else finds out about this. But either way, Harry and I will need to calmly sit down and discuss what happened between us," she rationalized before continuing. "Okay, I know, it's going to be extremely difficult, but we need to do this, and as soon as possible. We can't let this linger. We'll need to deal with what happened,"
She put her toothbrush down on the counter and slowly leaned in towards the mirror. She locked eyes with the girl that stood before her. "You can do this," she tried to convince the bushy haired girl reflecting back at her. Her eyes welled up slightly as she momentarily thought of the damage Ginny's stupidity had caused. "No," she hissed angrily as she slammed the cup of water in her hand down on the counter more forcefully that she had intended. Through sheer force of will she did not let her tears fall, as she had vowed she wouldn't. The young witch took a deep breath and composed herself once again. "You can do this!" she repeated as she continued to stare at her reflection.
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Molly Weasley stood with her hands on her hips glaring at Ginny. "What did you do?" she demanded to know from her only daughter.
"Me? Nothing Mom, I swear. I have no idea what that was about," Ginny assured her mother gesturing in the direction of the vortex.
Fluer, who was standing nearby, watched intently as mother and daughter argued back and forth.
"Ginny, someone doesn't just 'accio' you without a reason. Whoever it was certainly thinks you did something. 'Accio' is an excessive way to try to get in touch with someone young lady. So it doesn't sound like nothing to me."
Molly waited for an explanation.
Ginny said nothing; she just stood staring at her mother.
"That's it." She dismissed Ginny with a wave and headed for the door. "I'm going to contact your father. He'll know if someone was looking for you, then we'll get to the bottom of this."
"Mom honestly, I haven't done anything, to anyone. It has to be some kind of mistake."
In the very back of Ginny's mind her conversation with Lavander and Pavarti flickered by for a brief second. She quickly dismissed it as a possibility, and followed her mother across the store pleading her innocence.
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Hermione, dressed in jeans and a simple pullover with her hair pulled back into a very bushy ponytail sat all alone in a fairly remote corner of the great hall. She was pushing the sausage and eggs on her plate around with little enthusiasm. She was not actually eating anything, she wasn't very hungry. She had decided to sit off by herself rather than sit at her usual table this morning. Even though she was sure that the dozen or so students who were at breakfast that early, were constantly glancing her way and whispering. At least she was far enough away as to not actually be able to hear what they were saying to each other. Sitting at the Gryffindor table, after last night, would have been too much to bear, even as empty as it was. She was planning to pretty much steer clear of just about everyone today. Maybe she'd spend her time in the library. On a beautiful Saturday like this, the library was not the in place to be, she could expect to be left alone for the most part, she hoped.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash at her table that startled Hermione so much that the fork she was using flew right out of her hand.
Ron Weasley stood before her with both of his hands tightly gripping the corner of her table as he leaned over her menacingly. She looked up and seeing who the insensitive clod was, she snapped at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You scared me half to death." She then glowered at him before she leaned back on the bench she was sitting on and looked from side to side for the fork she had lost. She hadn't really paid any attention to him once she saw who it was. If she had, she would have seen the angry flush rising above Ron's ridiculous orange sweater with the big giant 'R' on it.
"You're mad at me?" he bellowed. "What right do you have to be mad at me? What the hell did you do to Harry yesterday? I saw how upset he was, and I'm sure YOU had something to do with it."
Hermione froze where she was, halfway back up to a sitting position. Her mouth dropped open it shock. She could not believe what her ears had just heard. Ron was accusing her of upsetting Harry. That accusation, coming from a Weasley, pushed her over the edge. Hermione clenched her hands into fists, her right hand still holding the fork she had retrieved from the floor beside her. She then slowly rose up off the bench, shaking with anger.
"What? What did you just say to me?" Hermione nearly shrieked as she poked him hard in the chest with the fork.
The fifteen or twenty students who were eating their breakfast began watching carefully.
This was getting interesting!
The hall got very quiet. All the student chatter instantly stopped. They all wanted to be sure they would be able to hear every word that Ron and Hermione were saying. They were, and they were not disappointed.
"Hey, watch it," Ron cried as he brought a hand up to his chest and began rubbing the spot where she had poked him while he backed away from her.
Hermione had no intention of letting Ron get away. She followed him, still brandishing the fork and boiling with rage as she advanced.
"My fault, you're accusing ME of upsetting Harry! You are the most mindless, clueless, unknowing, insensitive git I have ever met!" she shouted. And each adjective she shouted was punctuated with a poke of the fork for emphasis, each poke harder than the one before it.
Ron was confused. He was the one who was supposed to be angry! The insane Hermione advancing on him was actually hurting him with that damn fork. He tried to still show his anger by accusing her again, but most of the fight had gone out of him, all he really wanted to do was run.
Ron's attempt at a comeback came out as a very lame, "Whatever you did, you better not do it again," as he continued to back peddle while pointing a finger at her.
But she was still following him and screaming at him. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Why don't you go ask your SISTER! She caused all THIS! So help me Ronald Weasley, if you don't get away from me this instant, today will be the saddest day of your life!"
Ron rebounded and returned fire. "Don't give me that, Ginny's not even here, so don't go blaming this on her, Hermione!"
That was it, Hermione shrieked as tears of anger ran down her face, and she ran at him.
"Oh crap!" he muttered as she closed the distance between them. He turned to run but he collided with the corner of one of the tables. Luckily for him, it spun him in the direction he needed to go, which was away from the advancing Hermione. As he reached the Great Hall door, she flung the fork at him as hard as she could. The fork imbedded in the huge oak door, right where Ron had been just seconds before, as the door slammed shut behind him. Emotionally distraught, Hermione fell to her knees, brought her hand up to cover her face, and cried.
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Harry woke with a start. He was momentarily disoriented at finding himself not in his own room. He threw his legs off the bed and sat up. His heart was racing, about what he couldn't quite remember. There was just a vague remnant of a dream finishing its escape from his consciousness. He covered his face with his hands, and then raked them up through his hair as he tried to chase the last vestiges of sleep away. He stood up too quickly, and his whole body creaked. He winced. His elbows and knees were sore and his chin was throbbing. He said Hermione's name out loud as he crossed the room and headed for the sink. He needed to speak to her, and soon. He needed to tell her everything he didn't get to tell her last night.
Harry stopped dead. "Wait! I need to think this through." He circled back towards the bed. "I can't just go rushing up to her, and blurting out a million things. That's not gonna work. I need to think about this a little bit. Okay, what am I gonna say? I have no freakin clue. What if Hermione won't listen to me? What do I do then? Why would she even think that everything that happened between us was just the potion?"
He stood still and thought for a moment, and then shook his head in disgust.
"I can't believe I'm such an idiot. There she was," and he gestured with his hands at the ground in front of him as if she was actually standing there. "The whole time, and I didn't even notice. Well at least I've noticed now, and I'm not going back to being just friends. I can't, I want more." With his mind made up he headed off to find Hermione, forgetting that he had intended to clean himself up a bit by at least washing away the dried blood.
The first place Harry headed was back to the common room to look for her. He was in no mood to answer a shitload of dumb questions from his house mates about yesterday, so they better not ask. He reached the Fat Lady, and instead of going in, he asked her if Hermione had come out.
"Yes she did, about a half an hour ago." Before he had a chance to get away she remarked. "My goodness you are a mess. What on earth happened to you?"
Harry just grumbled at her and ignored the question before asking if she could point him in the direction Hermione had gone. The Fat Lady waited for a moment for a reply to her question, but realizing that one was not forthcoming, her unenthusiastically gestured in the general direction of the great hall. He never even said thank you as he ran off in the direction that she had pointed.
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Ron mumbled to himself as he walked through the hallways back to the common room.
He grabbed the neck of his sweater and pulled it out so he could see the damage Hermione had done with her damn fork. "She's a total loon! I can't believe she stabbed me. She upsets Harry, blames it on my sister, and then attacks me. She must have a damn chemical imbalance. I can't believe I actually liked her!"
Ron was so busy grumbling as he rounded the corner that he never saw Harry until it was too late. Harry had been running with his head down and he caught Ron right on the left cheekbone with the top of his head. Harry brought his hands up and held his head as he bent over in pain and circled away. Ron fell backwards into the wall. He saw stars, an entire galaxy of stars actually, full of pretty colors. He slowly slid down the wall until he came to rest in a sitting position.
"You okay?" Harry asked when the pain had subsided enough that he could open his eyes.
"Bloody hell Harry that really hurt," bemoaned Ron as the stars started to fade from his field of vision. "What the hell is your hurry? Hey wait, what was all that crap about in the common room last night?"
Harry whole body tensed up, and he gritted his teeth. This was not something he felt like sharing, especially with a Weasley. Although this mess was not Ron's fault, it was difficult for Harry to keep from feeling that there was some guilt by association, fair or not. He was not angry with Ron; he was more distrustful of another Weasley, but he had no intention of going over the whole 'yesterday thing' with him anyway.
Seamus Finnegan appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. "Bloody hell guys that was a wicked collision. You both okay?" he said as he placed a hand on Ron shoulder, and then looked towards Harry. "Where were you guys heading in such a hurry?"
"Down to the great hall," Harry replied as he winced after touching the now growing lump on his head.
Ron struggled to his feet and his eyes lit up. "Trust me Harry, you do NOT want to go down there, crazy witch tried to kill me. Look," he said, as he lifted up his shirt revealing a great number of red spots on his chest. Do you have any idea what these are?" Ron said as he pointed to his chest. Both Harry and Seamus looked at Ron, then at each other before Harry guessed, "Uhh, freckles?"
"Freckles?" Ron screeched at the pair. "The hell you say. They are NOT freckles. That crazy bitch Hermione stabbed me like ten times with a fork."
At the mention of Hermione's name, and crazy bitch in the same sentence, Harry's green eyes went black, and he lunged at Ron with his hands outstretched intending to choke the life out of his soon to be former best friend. Luckily for Ron, Seamus was close enough to blunt some of the force of Harry's charge by getting his body partially between them. The three boys swayed back and forth in what would have appeared to be a very bizarre dance to anyone happening upon the scene. Seamus tried to stay between Harry and Ron. Ron tried to get Harry's hands off his neck, and Harry did his best to strangle Ron for what he had called Hermione.
Seamus shouted at Harry. "Harry let go, have you lost your mind, it's Ron. Let him go Harry, will you let him go for Merlin's sake, let him go!" All the while Harry demanded of Ron, "Don't you EVER call her that again, EVER. You hear me? EVER!" Ron was only able to manage a few strained gurgling sounds due to Harry's hands being securely wrapped around his neck.
When Ron was finally able to get Harry's hands lose. Seamus pushed them apart, and held on to Harry as Ron collapsed backwards against the hallway wall.
"What is wrong with you?" Ron whimpered as he slid to the ground a few feet from the still angry Harry. "I stuck up for you. I told her I was pissed that she upset you, and then she tried to kill me. Then I warn you to stay away from her because she's loony, and you try to kill me. What the hell is going on around here? Has everybody gone insane?
Ron struggled to his feet. "You know what, the hell with you Harry, and the hell with Hermione too, I'm done with the both of you." And with that said he trotted off down the corridor, looking back occasionally to make sure Harry wasn't following him.
As Ron turned a corner and disappeared from sight Seamus let go of Harry and took two steps away from him. "Harry, have you gone mad?" he asked in a low tone. "That was RON you were strangling, you know, your best mate. Why the bloody hell would you do that?"
Harry was now pacing around in a circle in the corridor. He looked at Seamus "You heard him!" he growled as he pointed vaguely in the direction that Ron had gone. "Didn't you? You heard what he called Hermione! What was I supposed to do, just let that GO?"
Seamus slowly backed away. "But Harry, he's your best mate; you don't do that to your best mate."
"And friends don't say that about other friend either." Harry retorted as his pacing slowed down. He seemed to be calming down a bit, and he stopped and leaned against the wall.
"Okay …..Fine." Harry threw his hands up into the air in disgust. "So maybe he caught me at a bad moment, but still, friend or not, I'm not gonna just stand there and let someone say that about Hermione, that's never gonna happen." Harry's angry eyes challenged Seamus to say something more.
Seamus just stood and stared at the determined look on Harry's face, he said nothing.
With seemingly nothing left to say Harry tore off down the hallway towards the great hall to find Hermione as a still shocked Seamus stood and watched him go.
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Ron could not believe the day he was having. He would have bet anyone a million galleons that what just happened to him, could not have happened. Hermione, the girl of his dreams, had stabbed him repeatedly with a fork. And not ten minutes later, Harry, his best friend, had choked him. Something was really wrong. His two best friends, "former best friends," he muttered angrily to himself, were absolutely bonkers. There was no other explanation, they had both gone mental. "But why?" he wondered as he rubbed his neck and then slowly lowered his hand to his still sore chest.
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Harry had slowed his pace some as he was now out of Seamus' sight, but he was still in a hurry to find Hermione. He turned the last corner leading to the great hall and he bumped right into the person he was looking for.
Hermione was looking back over her shoulder at the doors of the great hall to see if anyone had come out behind her. No one had, but she was sure that the show she and Ron had put on would reach full blown tall tale status by lunch. She lowered her head in despair, and that's when she collided with someone. She looked up startled. Then she saw who she had bumped into and her eyes grew to the size of saucers and her breath hitched in her throat. Harry stood before her. He had no glasses on, which made his amazing green eyes stand out even more. His chin was caked with dried blood. His shirt, which for a fleeting second she recognized as the one she had torn open last night, was badly stained, no doubt from his dripping chin. His hair, which was always a mess, was far worse than normal. Despite it all, she couldn't help thinking that he was the sexiest man she had ever seen and she blushed slightly for thinking it. Then she turned to run but he was too fast, a seekers reflexes in action, he grabbed her left arm as she turned to go. She froze, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened her eyes and turned to face him.
"We need to talk," Harry began. She nodded her head.
"I know," she replied almost breathlessly as her eyes glazed over. He thought she might cry, but then she seemed to pull herself together. He drank her in, stared into her beautiful brown eyes, red rimmed and puffy, but none the less, beautiful, warm, inviting. "God, look at her," he thought. He stared, hypnotized by her. Hermione was caught as well. She did not want him staring at her like that. I did things to her that, at the moment, she was trying hard not to think about. He was still holding her wrist. She broke his gaze, and looked down at her feet as she began to speak.
"Harry, I think tha…." There was movement in front of her. As she raised her eyes to see what it was, Harry's lips crashed hard into hers.
Stunned….again! That was twice in the last twelve hours.
They back peddled slowly until they hit the cold stone wall. Harry's tongue was once again in her mouth. The sweet caress of his tongue dancing with hers was beyond erotic. All rational thought was instantly gone. She was completely at his mercy. Harry released his grip on her wrist and slid his hand down to hers and interlaced their fingers. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and drew her close. Her free hand rested softly on his chest. He was aroused, full of desire. It was coming off him in waves that crashed over her, burying her beneath them, she was drowning in him.
Somehow, incredibly, a tiny spark of reason flared up. Her mind, inexplicably, found the strength to work again. She fought every impulse she had, that screamed at her to let go, be his, which was what she wanted so badly. But, she opened her eyes. She hadn't even realized that they had been closed from the second he had started kissing her. She then began to push him away. He was backing up. His neck was now stretching to keep his lips on hers, but she was gaining ground. And then her lips were free. She took a deep breath. Pushing Harry away took more courage that she had thought she possessed. It was probably the hardest thing she had ever done because he was what she wanted more than anything, but not from a potion, not like that.
Harry looked up, startled. Then he stared at her. His green eyes were mesmerizing. He licked his lips slightly as he held her gaze.
She shivered.
"He shouldn't do that. It's way to hard to resist him when he smolders like that," she thought. He leaned in again, but she turned her head as he did. He ended up kissing just the corner of her mouth. He had missed her lips by just enough that she could still focus.
"No Harry, not like this, not from a potion."
Those words, said out loud, got his attention.
"No Hermione, never, it was never a potion, I believe that. I can feel it." He was still very close. Her hair gently brushed his face as he leaned into her shoulder and inhaled her smell. He closed his eyes as the sweetness of her scent overpowered him. He gently nuzzled her neck with his nose and his warm breath sent shivers up her spine as he whispered gently to her, "Never! Never, Hermione, it wasn't a potion, it was just you.
She felt herself falling again, he was incredibly hard to resist. But she did it. She slid to her right, and he nearly fell into the wall head first as his head lost contact with her shoulder and neck. He was surprised by her movement, but now, now she was two feet away and retreating. He had been so intoxicated by her that his mind had drifted a bit and now she was getting away from him when he needed her to stay. He needed to convince her that his feelings were all real.
She stopped her retreat, and then she hit him right between the eyes with the one argument he couldn't win.
"I'm sorry Harry, but not once," she began as she held up one finger for emphasis. "Not once in six years did you ever show me even a hint that you were attracted to me. Not one time, and I looked for it Harry. I hoped and I looked, but it wasn't there. No, it had to be the potion. All those years, and nothing, until yesterday. There's no way Harry, you can't explain that away." Tears started to trickle down her cheeks. He didn't know what to say. She was backing away faster and faster now, holding up one finger and repeating, "Not one time," as she shook her head
"Wait," Harry held up his hands up in a stop sign trying to coax her to remain where she was. "Just wait Hermione. If that's true, and it was all just a potion, then why do I still feel it then huh, explain that!" He was trying to appeal to her sense of reason. "It was yesterday at lunch Hermione, and I still can't think of anything but YOU!" he said, pointing at her. "No God damn potion lasts that long and you know it!" His anger got the best of him for a second as he realized that his argument was not getting through.
She had never stopped backing away, or shaking her head no. "I'm sorry Harry, I….I don't believe you." He watched as she continued to shake her tear streaked face from side to side. She finally brought her hands up to her face and ran down the hallway.