Forbidden Love
Chapter 10
`Wow, today practically flew by,' Hermione thought to herself as she collapsed onto the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room and grabbed her book off the table.
She, Harry, and Ron had visited with Hagrid for a little over an hour, which was an -interesting experience, as always. Then, they meet up with Ginny, Neville, and Luna, who were hanging out by the lake with a variety of their classmates catching up on the summer holidays and what everyone had done. After lunch, the group had gone to the Room of Requirement so that Harry could explain to Ginny, Luna, and Neville about his dream and go over his chat with Dumbledore.
When done with that, the group discussed ideas for the D.A., giving their opinions on lesson plans and possible members, then took a leisurely stroll to the Great Hall where everyone enjoyed a huge dinner. Hermione's studious side, however, came back with vengeance after desert, referring to their day as a day of "goofing off". She had then insisted that they all return to the common rooms to get a head start on studying. After a lot of grumbling and whining -mainly from Ron- everyone, with the exception of Luna, now sat in various locations around the warm, burgundy-colored common room.
Hermione had insisted that they go over their potions chapters since, for reasons that none of them had the courage to ask about, Professor Snape had been removed from the Defense Against Dark Arts position and placed back in the Potions one that had been vacated by Slughorn. She knew and took annoyingly great pains to remind everyone else that the Professor was probably upset about his removal and would, more likely than not, be particularly difficult this year on the Gryffindor students in general… and Harry in particular.
Hermione looked over at the dark-haired boy while she distractedly flipped through her Potions book to chapter thirteen, where she had left off on the train. He was sitting on the floor in front of one of the burgundy-colored armchairs with Ginny sitting Indian style behind him. Harry was staring at his book with a glazed look in his eyes, eyes that were locked on the complicated text, but remained unmoving with the exception of the occasional blink.
She frowned; she didn't know what was happening between them, but lately things just seemed weird and complicated… simple things they use to be able to do, like tease one another, now held a different vibe for some reason, a certain type of… undertone. She sighed and looked down at her book, attempting to push thoughts of Harry out of her mind and do some much-needed studying.
'The Glumbumble is a magical furry insect. It produces a fluid that causes melancholy. This fluid is used as an antidote for the hysteria that results from eating Alihotsy leaves.'
Hermione sighed; she had read this passage five times in the last five minutes and yet the information just wasn't sticking.
Giving a frustrated groan, she looked up from her book at the roaring fire. As the flames continued to dance merrily, her gaze unconsciously drifted to the couple on the chair. She bit her lip against the annoyance that appeared upon seeing Ginny idly running her long fingers through Harry's dark, soft locks. Harry, meanwhile, was no longer pretending to study; his gaze had drifted from his book to the fire that she had been looking at moments before. The orange and red flames reflected in his glasses and seemed to dance in his bright green eyes. Once again doing her best to pull her gaze away, Hermione looked back down at her book, only to find her eyes back where they had been moments before, moments later. She continued trying to study to no avail; the third time that her gaze drifted to her dark-haired friend, mahogany eyes connected with emerald ones. Harry's expression remained blank as they stared at each other, but his eyes reflected a play of emotions. They continued to gaze upon one another, each wondering what the other was thinking, each wondering if the other was feeling what they were, and each wondering if they were as confused about it as them.
Hermione's eyes swung to Ginny as the girl leant down in her chair, her hair falling lightly over her shoulders and landing upon Harry's as she placed a light kiss on his neck just under his ear lobe. A frown pulled at Hermione's lips, but she quickly schooled her features to a more passive expression when she noticed that Harry was still looking at her. His green eyes had become hooded and had taken on a darker hue as Ginny continued to kiss his neck, her hand trailing down his chest. Try as she might, Hermione could not look away from the couple, or from Harry who had pinned her with his heated gaze. She felt like a prisoner to her emotions, her body temperature rising as though he were the one kissing her neck. A few moments later, his eyes drifted closed as Ginny began to nibble his ear, and Hermione felt a surge of jealousy flow through her at the fact that the other girl could do so easily what she wanted to do so desperately.
"Oi! Come on now!" Ron's voice called out from behind her, causing her to jump.
Her gaze snapped to the red-haired boy only to find him glaring at his sister and best friend.
"Look, I know you two are dating and I can handle that, I really can, but if I catch you two snogging in front of me one more time I promise you, Harry, that I will be forced to perform my brotherly duties and punch your lights out." Ron said, frowning.
"Well, if you would spend less time playing Wizard's Chess and more time snogging your girlfriend, you wouldn't notice what Harry does with his." Ginny retorted with a smirk.
"Yeah, well, if you would spend less time trying to pork my best mate and more-"
"I am not trying to pork anyone! How dare you! You prat! I can't belie-"
"Okay, look!" Hermione interrupted loudly. "Let's quit all this nonsense about snogging and...well, other stuff and get to work." She looked at Ron with an annoyed expression. "You really should be studying; after all, you know Snape's second favorite person to pick on is you."
"Who's his fir..." Ron trailed off, "oh, er... right..." he gave Harry a half smile. "Sorry, there old chap. What's the big deal, anyway? I probably won't even qualify for potions this term." he grumbled.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Then you can continue to study your Defense Against Dark Arts. We have no idea what teaching style the new professor has and it's best to be prepared. Look, why don't we all just sit down and study, no more games, no more snogging, no more arguing, just hitting the books. We all need it."
"You don't need..." Ron started, but trailed off at the death glare he received from his girlfriend.
"We all need it." She said once again, lifting a brow and silently daring him to argue.
Taking the hint, Ron made his way over from the chess table to the couch where Hermione was, picking up his Defense book along the way. Giving her a small smile, he sat on the couch next to her and flipped open the heavy text to where he had left off.
"Chapter one?!" Hermione exclaimed, giving him an incredulous expression. "Really, Ron, you're only on chapter one?"
He flushed while Harry and Ginny sniggered.
"What?" He said, shrugging before throwing a glare to his friend. "And what are you laughing at, what chapter are you on, Harry?"
"I'm on chapter six," the dark-haired boy responded with a cheeky grin.
Ron's glare got more pronounced and he rolled his eyes. "Of course you are, you had Madam Pince standing over you for the last two weeks of sum...mer..." he caught himself, wincing he looked at his brown-haired girlfriend.
"What did you call me?" Hermione asked, glaring at him.
"Er..." Ron flushed a deeper red. "Well... I didn't mean- just to say…." he sighed, "I'm sorry, it- it was an accident...I, you see...it's just that... I have to get used to this whole boyfriend thing, that's all..." he finished lamely, wincing again at her severe expression.
She glowered at him. "You keep going at this rate and you won't have to get used to anything Ronald."
Hearing a noise to her left, Hermione turned and glared at the laughing Ginny who quickly began to cough instead. For his part, Harry was suppressing a smile of his own while staring down at his book and pretending to study, but she knew better, especially since the book in question was upside down.
"Hermione... sweetie, I'm sorry." Ron said, reaching out for her hand. She pulled away from his grasp, glaring at him again.
"Well, that's interesting, you're sorry and I'm tired. I'm going to bed; obviously no one here is interested in seriously studying. Goodnight." At that, she grabbed her books from the table and walked briskly to her room without looking back, suppressing the hurt that flowed through her from Ron's comment.
****************
Harry sat at the table in the Great Hall, staring down at his schedule for the term with a bleak expression.
"So, what do you have?" Ron asked, eagerly leaning over to have a look at the small piece of parchment in his friend's hand. "Oh, wow... that's bad news there..." he mumbled.
"What?" Ginny asked, setting her schedule on the table and leaning across to try to see Harry's.
"Double potions," the dark-haired boy mumbled with a dejected look.
"First thing, too... bad spot of luck there, mate," Ron said, shaking his head and giving a sympathetic pat on the back.
"What's bad luck?" Hermione asked, walking up and taking a seat on the bench between Ron and Harry.
"Nothing," Harry mumbled, wanting to change the subject in a futile attempt block out the fact that he had Snape all morning. "So, how'd it go?"
Hermione gave him a curious look for avoiding her question, but didn't probe further, instead settling for a shrug.
"It went pretty well. Zach and I were able to get there early and get a proper briefing from the professors, so we were more informed and confident when we talked to the first years." She responded, grabbing a piece of toast.
Hermione and Zach were selected as Head Girl and Head Boy to give a short speech to the first years about the rules of the school grounds, and the most efficient way to find your classes in the winding Hogwarts corridors. As soon as Professor Dumbledore had told Hermione about that aspect of her duties this summer, she had immediately gotten to work, creating small maps for all the first years to find their classes. Though technically Hermione was now old enough to use magic outside of school, Dumbledore had asked that the student's refrain from doing so, especially those from Muggle homes. So creating the miniature maps was no easy feat, but he and Hermione had lots of fun doing it during his second night at her place. Her mom had made them some homemade caramel popcorn and they had put on some Muggle music and made a night of it. It was one of his fonder memories of his visit, after the skating rink, the water park…. and well, the last night, of course.
"So, what did they think of the maps?" Harry asked before taking a bite of sausage.
Her face lit up. "Oh, Harry, it was wonderful! You should have seen their faces; they looked so relieved. I didn't have enough copies of course, but now that I could use magic I just did a simple replication spell and was able to have enough for everyone." She leant forward whispering, "Thanks for letting me use the Marauders Map, it came in very handy," she pulled back, giving a small smile, and he responded with a lopsided smile of his own.
"I wish we would have had maps our first year," Ron said, cutting into his pancakes and Harry's thoughts, "they would have come in bloody handy. That was a great idea, Hermione." He gave her a small smile and a kiss on the cheek.
Harry rolled his eyes and watched as Hermione flushed, her eyes then momentarily connected with his before looking back at Ron.
"Thanks, but it wasn't just me, Harry helped a lot." She graced Harry with another subtle smile.
"Well, I'm sure it went great, probably the best speech a first year has ever received." Ron responded.
Harry didn't fail to notice his friends' lack of comment on his assistance with the maps. Smiling to himself at Ron's obviously transparent oversight, he turned back to his breakfast, taking a small sip of his juice.
"You're right, it did seem to go exceptionally well," Hermione responded, beaming "however, it would have been better had all of the Prefects shown up to the meeting." she gave Ron a pointed look and Harry a distracted pat on the back when he began to choke on his orange juice from laughter.
"What?" Ron asked, giving Harry a quick glare. "I wasn't the only one not there, you know…"
"No, you weren't. However, both of the Hufflepuff Prefects showed up to stand at Zach's side and there I was, with only Natalie MacDonald at mine. I felt decidedly lop-sided with only one person next to me while Zach had two." She responded, frowning.
Harry once again began to laugh, this time at the expression on Ron's face. Not wanting Hermione to get mad at him, he quickly covered it up with coughing.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, glancing at him. Upon receiving a nod from him, she turned back to Ron with an expectant look.
"Well, why didn't you ask one of the Ravenclaw Prefects to stand with you?" Ron asked, frowning and glaring at Ginny who had joined Harry in his amusement and was sitting with a huge grin on her face.
Hermione didn't respond. Instead, she looked at him with her lips pursed and a disappointed look on her face.
"Oh, come on..." he looked back at his girlfriend "I mean, you guys were having it during breakfast. I couldn't miss breakfast, could I?"
"Does it look like I missed breakfast, Ronald? The meeting was pretty much all held before breakfast."
"Well, before breakfast, I'm sleeping."
She scowled.
"Aw, come on, Hermione. You wouldn't begrudge me my beauty rest, would you?" Ron asked, batting his lashes and pouting.
A smile pulled at the brunette's lips. "Well... I suppose you do need it."
Harry, Ginny, and Neville sniggered, while Ron smiled.
"See, it's because you allowed me that extra rest that you can have a boyfriend that looks as strapping as I do." He said with a wide grin.
Hermione rolled her eyes and gave a sweet smile. Reaching out, she gave Ron a small pat on the arm.
"Perhaps you should take a nap, then, hmm?"
This time they laughed outright and it only intensified when Ron scowled.
"Now that was a low blow there, Hermione Granger."
She smiled and shrugged before turning to make a plate of food and throwing Harry an amused glance. He winked in response before going back to his kippers; they continued to eat in silence, ignoring Ron's occasional grumbling. A few minutes later as they were just about finished with their meal, the mail arrived.
Hermione looked up, hoping to see her copy of the Daily Prophet; instead, she received something quite a bit bigger as a large brown parcel was dropped into her waiting hands by a dark tan barn owl.
"Cool, what did you get?" Ron asked, leaning over to have a look.
"I don't know yet, I haven't opened it." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, open it," the redheaded boy responded as though it were the most natural answer in the world.
She glared at him but when she opened her mouth to retort, she was interrupted as another brown parcel hit the table in front of Harry, right next to his plate.
Harry looked up just in time to see Hedwig flying back out of the Great Hall, presumably back to the Owlery.
"Harry, you got something, too?" Ron asked, now clearly puzzled.
And he wasn't the only one, they all knew that Harry never got anything, let alone packages, and if he did receive something it was never this early in the school year, so everyone stared at the parcel with acute interest.
"Oh," Hermione said, looking at the writing on her package, then at Harry's. "They're from my mum and dad... odd, they don't normally send stuff."
More than a bit curious, Harry and Hermione each tore into their packages, with an inquisitive Ron, Ginny, and Neville looking on. Finally getting the paper off, Harry discovered a medium-sized white box; inside he found what looked to be a small book.
"What is it?" Ginny asked from next to him, where she had moved to better see what he had received.
"It's a Muggle photo album," Hermione said, answering her question, as she took an identical one out of her package. "Look, Harry, it has pictures from your belated birthday."
Harry opened the book and smiled. There were a few pictures of him and Hermione in their swimsuits at the water park along with some shots of them at the restaurant and the mall they had gone to after leaving. Happy memories of the past summer flooded his brain and he grinned as he came across the picture of them dressed up in their finest standing outside of the theater before going to see Cats. He rolled his eyes, giving Hermione an amused glance when he noticed the smirk on her face in the photo. She grinned and winked in response, having seen the shot he was looking at. They both then laughed at the memory of how annoyed Harry was after the supposed "play". He was just about to turn the page when a hand came past his arm and a finger poked his picture. Harry gave an amused look at his girlfriend, answering her question before she could even ask.
"They're Muggle photos, Gin, they don't move," he said, smiling as her frown deepened.
"I know, but why don't they move? I mean, what's the point of having a picture that doesn't move?" She asked, looking at him.
"It's the sentiment," Hermione answered, giving Ginny a small smile. "It's the moment captured, it's the beauty of the shot, it's-"
"Bloody boring, if you ask me," Ron said, flipping quickly through Hermione's album before handing it back to her and returning to his breakfast.
"Well, no one asked you," she responded, giving him a small kick; ignoring his yelp of pain, she sat the book down softly on the table and returned to the box. "Oh, look, there's more."
Upon hearing that, Harry sat his album on the table and returned his attention to his box, inside he found a tin of cookies, a package of those mint chocolate candies that Hermione had had yesterday, a couple of Muggle pens, paper, stamps and envelopes with "just in case" scrawled across the top in Mrs. Granger's neat handwriting. There were also some socks and undershirts in his box (knee highs and spaghetti strap tees in Hermione's) and rounding off his goodies were the magical glue and cloth that he had forgotten in Mr. Granger's fanny pack. Hermione gave an adorable, unladylike snort upon seeing them and then remarked that perhaps it was easy to loose stuff in a fanny pack, causing them both to erupt into laughter and Ron and Ginny share a confused look, having been left out of their private joke.
"It's almost time for class," Ginny mumbled a second later, laying her head on his shoulder as he began putting his things back into the box.
"Oh! Class..." Hermione's eyes widened in shock, "how could I forget!?"
She began hurriedly stuffing everything back into her white box, ignoring the fact that everyone else looked as surprised as she did that she had forgotten about class.
"Well... it's been a long exciting morning, that's all," she commented, more to herself than anyone else while standing. "We had better head back to the rooms to get our things and put these up."
"What do you have first?" Ron asked, still chewing on a piece of toast as they made their way out of the Great Hall.
"Who, me?" Hermione asked; he and Harry nodded. "Well, that's easy, I have double potions."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and grinned, maybe his luck wasn't as bad as he thought.
A.N. Well, that's it for this chapter, I know there wasn't as much "fluff" as some may have liked (wink) however don't worry the fluff is coming back. Stay tuned for the next chapter and please review and for those of you who are reviewing Thanks!! Ja ne!
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