It had been a week since me and Harry had gone had gone to Hogsmeade and I was still no closer to figuring out the few `little disturbances' that day. My love life was completely and utterly screwed. I didn't tell Harry of my dilemma, obviously, because he would either laugh at my position (highly unlikely, since he's, like, the most caring person I know) or have that look in his eyes and get me to tell him everything (more likely than the last, and the one that I was fearing the most).
The position I was in didn't help matters, either.
I was squished in-between Ron and Harry at lunch and trying very unsuccessfully to cut my piece of chicken into well-devised square cubes. This is completely normal, mind you. It seemed as though everyone was sitting in close proximity today leaving me feeling a very uncomfortable stirring in my stomach. I was claustrophobic as a child, so I had no doubt in my mind that I might vomit onto my carefully cut chicken. Wait, chicken?!
I started to cough uncontrollably. After about five seconds I felt a hand on my back, trying to force the chicken from my windpipe. I bowed my head down and let the chicken slide out of my throat. I head a collective moan of `eww' from the neighboring students and tables around us. Apparently I had caused a scene. Just great.
"Are you alright, `Mione?" I heard Harry's voice call from beside me.
"Yeah." I managed to say through the bits of chicken still in my mouth.
"I don't think you and chicken should be seeing each other anymore, all it leads to is regurgitation and one of you bowing over a plate, completely exhausted, and in your case, humiliated." I could sense the smirk.
"Thank you, Harry. That was very insightful."
"You know it."
I finally mustered the confidence to life my head from its place on the table and look around me. It seemed as though everyone had gotten over my minor disturbance and was back to their normal lunch activities. I sighed in relief. The last thing I wanted was attention.
"Actually, I think I'm going to go up to the common room for a few minutes to, err, gather my things before class." I spoke.
"But Herms, we have free period next." I heard Ron say.
I pretended to ignore him and made my way out of the hall. As I passed the Ravenclaw table I tried to keep my head pointed towards the exit. Tried. I felt my head turn towards that general direction as I made my way past it. I felt my stomach clench as I saw him talking to a pretty blonde with bright purple eyes. Yeah, purple.
I immediately turned back to looking at the exit but, to my shock, found a wall in my way. I smashed into it with an audible groan and pretended to play it off coolly as I found my way out and began to walk the path towards Gryffindor Tower.
I was halfway up the stairs in the main entrance when I heard someone call my name from behind. Seeing as though I felt my back tense; the options of who it was narrowed considerably. I turned around to see the figure of the one and only Harry Potter climbing the stairs to where I was. I turned back away from him and kept on climbing until his arm made contact with my shoulder. I felt myself tense again but resisted the urge to look at him. I had a pretty idea what look he was giving me right now.
"What's wrong, `Mione?" I heard him say. The tone of his voice confirmed my suspicions.
"I- nothing, I'm fine" I could feel a distant pain on my right eye, but decided to ignore it.
"Look at me, Hermione." The pain was getting stronger and I could feel tears forming in my eyes. "Hermione . . ." he said gently, "Please."
I felt a tear run down my cheek as I gave into his plea. My eyes were closed, but I could hear him take a sharp intake of breath. What was it? Did I smell repulsive? Look like hell? I opened my eyes, but felt I could only open my left one all the way. My right eye only opened only just so I could squint.
"What happened?" he asked me.
"What do you mean?" I said, confused.
He waved his hand in the air and conjured a mirror out of thin air. I didn't take the time to compliment him on his wandless magic, for I looked in the mirror and took a sharp intake of breath not unlike the one I hear Harry take moments ago. My right eye was slowly turning purple and tears were flowing out of my eyes. I hadn't realized I had been crying that badly.
"Oh." I said as it hit me, "I ran into a wall on my way out of the Great Hall."
He knew I wasn't lying, so he didn't say much. Well, he is Harry, so he began asking questions almost instantly. "And how exactly did you run into a wall?"
There was no use avoiding the truth, so I just blurted it out. "I saw Terry with some girl in the great hall. She had blonde hair and . . . and purple eyes-"
"Purple?" he asked me in astonishment.
"Yeah, purple!" I exclaimed, arms in the air, "and she was gorgeous . . ." I added in a monotone, turning away from him.
He turned my gaze back to him by placing a hand on my cheek and wiping the tears away. I felt the tenderness in his voice as he spoke, "Don't worry about it, Hermione. He's out of your life now."
I sniffed, "No, he's not. He still haunts me every day and when I see him I-I . . ." I never finished the sentence. I burst into tears and felt Harry pull me into his embrace, rubbing my back in comforting strokes. We stayed like that for a while. When I heard footsteps ascending the stairs. It took me a second to realize they were ours.
"W-where are we going?"
"The common room, of course. People were starting to exit the Great Hall and I figured you didn't want to be caught crying on your friends shoulder."
A shadow of a smile formed on my face, "Thank-you, Harry."
"No problem, `Mione. Now let's get you up to your favorite chair and have us a little chat, alright?" I nodded against his chest and let him lead the two of us towards Gryffindor Tower.
We made it there while it was still deserted and he guided me into my favorite chair, as promised. He sat on the floor below and stared at me. I felt his gaze pouring into my system and I shuttered. He must've thought I was going to start crying again, because he immediately put a hand atop of mine. He intertwined our fingers as he massaged my hand with his thumb. That gesture alone caused tears to my eyes. He was always so kind and caring to me . . . always there when I needed him.
And that's how I feel asleep. My head lolled to the side of my favorite chair and Harry's hand linked into mine.
~*~
It was dark all around me when I woke up. I felt the pressure was gone from my hand. Harry must have left to go to bed in his dormitory. I sighed but found I couldn't move very far in my current position. Funny, I thought, I don't remember this chair being so small. And it wasn't small . . . it was quite roomy when I fell asleep. But then how-
My thoughts were ceased as I felt a movement from halfway underneath my right side. I moved my head to the other side of my shoulder and saw ebony hair obstructing my view. He didn't leave. I fought back my tears as I snuggled into him more comfortably and felt him shift. I looked over at him and found his green eyes staring back at me.
"G'morning `Mione." He said groggily with a smile on his face.
I bit my lip and replied, "Good morning."
"How did you sleep?" he asked.
"Good, thanks to you." I replied. I saw a blush creep on his cheeks and decided that that was the cutest thing I had ever seen. "Did you really stay the whole time?"
He nodded, "Every second."
The tears were getting tougher to fight back, "Thank you, Harry. You don't know how much that means to me."
"It was nothing, really." He said dismissively. My attempts not to cry must have begun to show, because his brow furrowed as he looked at me with the look again. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah" I lied, "I just- I just, really have to go to the bathroom."
He still looked unconvinced as I made to wiggle out of our position. He arm went around my stomach as he pulled me towards him. His gaze was making me nervous as I tried to avoid it. "Unless you want to end up with regurgitated food coming out of a rather uncomfortable place, I suggest you let go of me." I think I surprised both of us with my statement, but I was first to recover as I took advantage of his state.
"And where do you think you're going?" he said from the chair as I began to walk away.
"To the bathroom, of course" And it was true . . . I really did have to pee. Before he could make a move to stop me (as I knew he would), I climbed up the girls staircase two at a time to ensure he wouldn't try to make them turn into a slide and send me crashing back into his inquisitive self.
As I let nature take its course I saw the familiar shade of red as I flushed the toilet. "Oh." I let slip, "That's why I've been so emotional."
I made my way back down the stairs as I checked the time (2:45 AM). Harry wasn't there, but I learned my lesson in thinking he wasn't there when he really was. So I checked all places he could possibly be before turning to my chair and picking up a book I left hidden in a cushion, deciding he really wasn't there and had probably had gone up to do something or another.
"You wouldn't have been looking for me, would you?"
I screamed and jumped out of my chair. I heard laughing from my place down on the floor. I heard the familiar rustling of Harry's infamous Invisibility Cloak and groaned. "I should've known." I muttered.
"Yes, you should have." Harry replied as he pulled off the cloak and offered an arm to me.
I put on a fake smile and took his hand . . . and tugged. He was too surprised to react with anything but a surprised yelp and a thud on top of me. The wind was knocked out of me but I considered it worth it for sake of revenge.
Harry moved from atop of me and moved to a position where he wasn't crushing me. More specifically, his elbows on either side of me and his legs in-between mine. His head turned towards me as his gaze locked with mine. I felt another tug in my stomach . . . but it wasn't a painful tug. It was more of a- a pleasurable tug; if that really is possible. Something flicked in his eyes and my breathing became ragged. It wasn't the afraid kind of ragged either- or maybe it was. I hadn't felt like this since-
"Hermione." He whispered to me.
"Harry . . ." I replied, more curiously then intended.
His face leaned towards mine and I froze. Was this really happening? Was I really going to let him? Was I really that eager to do it?
He stopped suddenly, so close to me that our noses were touching. "I think we should get up." He said. I felt my demeanor fall as I nodded meekly. He removed himself from his position and helped me get up.
"I- I'm sorry about that." I heard myself say mechanically.
"It's, uhh . . . it's alright." He said, scratching the nape of his neck, a nervous habit of his.
I could feel the tension in the air. Our moment- could I really call it that? I mean, it kind of was, with the stomach clenching and the ragged breathing, but-
"Harry? Hermione? What are you two still doing up?" I heard a voice say from behind us.
I turned and saw the familiar shade of fiery red hair, one that belonged to one Miss Ginny Weasley. She had a confused expression on her face along with a muggy look about her. It seemed as though she just got up. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing." We both said at the same time. I looked over at Harry to find him staring at me. I looked away before I could stop myself.
Luckily Ginny was too tired to be too skeptical of our behaviors. Normally she would be questioning us as though we were homicide convicts. I let out a sigh of relief, which I'm sure Harry could hear from beside me.
"Well then I'm off to bed." She said with an odd casualty in her voice. "G'night."
I watched her ascend the stairs and turned to Harry with haste. I saw him looking at the floor with peculiar interest. "Well . . ." I started, causing him to look over at me. "I'm off to, uhh, study for my Ancient Runes exam tomorrow. Goodnight, Harry."
I didn't hear a reply because of my rush to get up to my dormitory. I closed the door softly behind me as to not awaken my dorm mates and made towards my bed. I didn't have an Ancient Runes exam tomorrow, obviously. But Harry didn't need to know that. I tried my best to fall back asleep but all that happened that night was me thinking about a certain moment and the consequences it had on my love life.
~*~
I was a breakfast early the next morning and made a very quick attempt to avoid being seen by Harry. Awkward glances and shyness around my best friend weren't really on my agenda. By the time I made my way to my regular seat in Charms, I found Harry already there. Bugger.
I sat down wordlessly next to him and tried to concentrate on the lesson. I did a fair job at it in my opinion. But then again, who really care about my opinions anymore?
As soon as class ended, I made my way into the hallway. Bad choice. As soon as I exited I bumped into someone, when I looked up (after apologizing frantically) I saw the familiar and beautifully odd purple eyes.
"It's alright." She said with a smile. Great, even her voice was gorgeous.
It took me a moment to realize that she wasn't alone. She was attached by means of intertwined hands to none other than Terry. Oh God. "Isn't it, Terry?"
"Oh yeah, perfectly alright." He replied with a curt nod.
"Well, see you later." The girl told me kindly, guiding Terry along by the hand. The weird thing was, I could swear I saw smirk at me from behind his shoulder.
I felt my stomach fall down into my feet, my breath become ragged. This was the bad kind- the very bad kind. I did the only thing I could at that moment, I ran. I ran into a nearby broom cupboard a cried. I was so pathetic. I heard the bell ring and groaned; I was late for potions.
When I arrived in class Snape gave me a detention (not really a surprise). I sat down next to Harry and felt his gaze on me. He would usually make a move to comfort me or at least ask what was wrong. But not now.
I spent the whole period thinking of any way to commit first degree murder, which is what I usually do if someone gets on my nerves. It was a very entertaining and fail-safe way to calm me. Harry taught me to do it. But there were other ways of closure, I was sure of it. And since I had nothing else to lose, I started to think about it. The only other thing that would make her feel better would be revenge of some kind . . . but what kind of revenge?
And then it hit me as soon as the bell rang.
I ignored Snape's calls to hand me my detention form and followed him out of the room. When I was in the halls I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into a nearby broom cupboard. I ignored his questions and spoke with more confidence then I knew I had.
"I need your help."
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