Forbidden Love
Chapter 7
"Harry."
"Yeah?"
"Look at me." Harry turned to look at Hermione, still finding it difficult to maintain eye contact "What's going on?"
"Uh... nothing, I'm just excited to be headed back to Hogwarts." he lied, lamely looking around the crowded platform for something, anything to stop this conversation.
Hermione frowned at him, "That's not it and you know it... what's wrong?"
When Harry looked at her again he began feeling warm and uncomfortable and when he suddenly had a mental flash of her once again lying in bed, with her hair fanned out on the pillow Harry quickly shifted his gaze. He had to say something. He knew Hermione, there was no way she would let the subject drop, but he could not form a coherent thought to save his life.
"Well, it's just that..."
"Harry!! Hermione!! Over here!"
They turned just in time to see Ron rushing towards them Harry's shoulders slumped in relief at the much needed distraction. He looked at the sky, silently thanking Merlin for small favors before greeting his mate.
"Ron!" he called out, happily giving him a half-hug.
"Hey, Ron," Hermione added softly.
Harry was surprised to see Ron immediately grab her into a strong hug lifting her off of the ground slightly. He frowned as something that felt suspiciously close to jealousy flowed thorough him, quickly changing his expression when he noticed Hermione watching him from over Ron's shoulder with a curious look.
"So, how you guys been?" Ron asked pulling away from her, his face turning as red as his hair.
Harry's grin widened, watching them both fidget and look so adorably nervous around one another, was pretty funny. Deciding to have fun with how uncomfortable the two still seemed with their new found relationship, he began to make kissy faces and smush his hands together, teasing Hermione, who was facing him.
"We've been fine," she said pointedly ignoring him and causing his amusement to become even more defined.
Ron, who had turned slightly, caught him in the act of messing with Hermione and reaching over playfully hit Harry on the arm, a moment later they both laughed.
"Well, I'll let you guys get caught up I have to go check and make sure that everyone knows where to sit," Hermione said; he and Ron both pulled a face. "Look, its part of my duties as Head Girl, besides as captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and a Gryffindor Prefect," she gave Ron a pointed look. "You should be glad that I'm doing it so that you don't have to. Now, go find us a compartment in the front with all of the other student staff members, please."
Looking at one another as she walked towards them to pass them, he and Ron gave small nods. Then, clicking their heels together, they each gave her a salute. Hermione ignored them as she passed, though Harry saw a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
"So," said Ron, looking around "you ready to hop on?"
"Yeah, sure," Harry replied, pushing his and Hermione's trunks over to the train. Grabbing both, he hefted them up, straining a bit under the added weight of Hermione's stuff.
'Probably a crap load of books,' he thought to himself getting onto the train.
Luckily, they found an empty compartment at the front of the train fairly quickly. Harry dropped the trunks onto the floor in a way quite similar to how Mr. Granger had dropped his things the day he had arrived at their house. Ron walked in behind him, caring one trunk and balancing both Hedwig and Pig's cages on top.
"Wow, mate, that looked heavy," he said grinning.
"Yeah, well that's because it was," Harry responded rubbing his sore arms "you know you should have been the one to carry that extra trunk. Hermione is your girlfriend." His answer was laugher from his red-haired mate; laugher that quickly died at Harry's dark scowl.
"Well, I was going to help but you looked like you had it," Ron said with a shrug. "By the by, when did you get so bloody big?" At that question, Ron looked his friend up and down." And is it me, or are you taller?"
"He's definitely taller," a voice commented from behind Ron. Ginny Weasley came into the compartment, her shoulder-length hair hanging loosely and swaying slightly as she walked. She gave her brother a small nudge as she passed him and walked up to Harry. Reaching him, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug.
"I missed you," she whispered in his ear, before pulling back and giving him a soft deep kiss.
They pulled apart upon hearing gagging noises from behind Ginny, the red-haired girl turned and glared at her brother as he held up one hand with the other still clutching his stomach.
"Please...please, no more," he sunk to the floor, his tongue hanging halfway out of his mouth. "Cannot. Take. It. Will. Die. Of. Revulsion." he rolled his eyes to the back of his head and faked fainting.
Harry laughed at his friends theatrics as Ginny scowled. "Idiot," she murmured before turning back to Harry. "Well, the train's going to start up soon, so, I guess I should go." she gave him a small smile and another kiss on the lips; at which time Ron's "body" convulsed.
Stepping over her brother's prone figure, she turned and gave Harry one last smile, before giving Ron a swift kick in the leg and walking out of the compartment, sliding the door shut behind herself.
"You can get up now," Harry commented, nudging Ron with his foot.
The other boy sat up and glared at him. "Do you mind not snogging my baby sister in front of me?" he asked, standing.
Harry grinned, "Hey! She snogged me, not the other way around." his grin widened at the responding glare "Heck, if anything your baby sister has taught me a thing or two, she does the most amazing thing with her tongu-"
He was cut off as Ron pulled out his wand.
"Don't make me hex you, Harry." he said stiffly.
Harry held up his hands in surrender, barley suppressing a grin.
"Okay, just thought you might like to know."
"I wouldn't."
Harry laughed and began storing the trunks; after grumbling under his breath for a moment, Ron helped. "So, what's up?" Ron asked when they were done.
His eyes shot to his friend. "Er...what do you mean?"
Ron gave him an odd look, "I mean 'what's up?' Has anything exciting happened?"
"Oh..." Harry breathed a sigh of relief before he remembered "Voldemort."
"What?!" Ron exclaimed, looking around nervously.
"I had a dream. In it, I was Voldemort."
"What...when, recently?"
"Yeah, last night. I've been dying to tell someone about it."
Ron looked confused "Why didn't you tell Hermione?"
"Oh...well," his mind flashed to long fingers gripping dark picture frames. Harry felt himself flush, "I...uh, tried but, she was asleep."
"Why didn't you wake her, you know anything that has to do with...him," he shuddered, even though he hadn't said the name, "that she would want to know immediately."
Harry grimaced, "Well, she just looked so... peaceful. I didn't want to disturb her."
Ron looked at him skeptically for a moment longer before shrugging and taking a chocolate frog out of his robes as they both took a seat.
"So, what happened?"
"Well, I was in this old rotting wood house," Harry scratched the back of his head, trying to remember all of the details "The windows were boarded up and you could smell wet wood. Then, as I was looking around Wormtail came in-"
"Prat," Ron mumbled.
Harry grinned and gave him a look.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly "continue."
"Like I was saying, Wormtail came in and he told me that they had found-"
"Hey," Hermione said, entering the small compartment, interrupting Harry's story.
As soon as she came in she took a seat next to him and Harry felt warmth flow through him as their legs brushed up against one another. Looking at her, he saw a blush creep up her neck and following her gaze, he noticed Ron, with a slightly offended look on his face. A second later, Hermione got up and went to sit next to him instead.
"So, what's up?" she asked looking at Ron.
"Oh, Harry was just telling me about his dream about You-Know-Who." Ron said.
"Voldemort, Ron." Harry responded, giving a wide grin when his friend cringed.
"Harry, you had another dream, when?" she turned towards him, a concerned look on her face.
"Last night," he said softly, flushing as he remembered what else happened last night.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, looking at him curiously.
"He tried," Ron interrupted before he could think up a suitable response. "but when he went to your room you were asleep, right, Harry?"
Her eyes shot to him and Harry looked guiltily at the floor, feeling a blush spread over his neck and face.
"Right," he said quietly turning his gaze to the window. "Are you okay?" Harry heard Ron ask, he turned to look back at his friend, noticing that he was talking to Hermione and not him.
"Yeah..." she said softly, looking at her hands.
Ron stared at her for a moment longer before taking her hand in his own. She looked at him in surprise and he responded with a small smile and a kiss on the cheek.
"That's okay, Hermione, you can't be there all the time," he grinned, "besides, Harry would've just had to tell it twice anyway." He looked back at Harry "So finish up, what happened?... No wait, start from the beginning so that Hermione doesn't miss anything."
Harry rolled his eyes, "I was at the beginning anyway Ron."
The other boy mad a face, "The very beginning Harry, sheesh," he rolled his eyes.
Harry suppressed a sigh and then relayed his entire dream to them, everything from the smell of the place and how it had lingered in his nostrils even after he had awakened. To the names of the people involved and the feeling of pleasure he had gotten from their fear of him.
"I don't like this, Harry," Hermione said, giving him a worried look, before going silent.
Harry could almost see her brain working, he watched her as she nibbled on the corner of her bottom lip for a moment, thinking about something. He looked away from her when he felt someone watching him; looking at Ron he noticed his friend frowning and giving him a curious look. Harry's brows furrowed and he shrugged at Ron, unsure of what he looked upset about, looking confused for a moment the red-haired boy looked between him and Hermione before allowing his gaze to rest on her.
'That was weird,' Harry thought to himself 'I wonder what Ron's problem was I was only looking at Hermione while she tried to come up with a plan. It's never bothered him before,' he looked out the window. 'What made this time different from the rest?'
Harry thought on it for a moment before his eyes widened in surprise. Had he...had he been staring at her lips? That would explain why Ron would be peeved.
"You need to make sure to talk to Dumbledore right after the feast, Harry," Hermione said, breaking into his thoughts. "It's very important that he knows what's going on, this means that they may have to double your Occlumency lessons this year."
Harry groaned at the thought, "As long as they're not with Snape again."
She rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter who they're with as long as you need them, you'll take them."
*****************************************
Hermione watched, suppressing an amused smile as he gave a dramatic sigh and let his head fall hitting the back of the seat.
"Whatever you say, mum," he muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
She got up and went and sat next to him, placing her hand softly on his, she caught his eyes when he looked at her.
"Harry, this is important, if you can see him again, then it means that he's probably regaining his strength. Besides, whoever they're looking for, The Order needs to know. That way, they can help out the Aurors in keeping a watch over whomever this guy is." Harry looked down at her hand for a moment, intertwining their fingers and lightly stroking the back of her hand.
"I know," he said softly "it's just that the summer was so quiet I was hopping for a near death-free school year for once." He chuckled and then sighed; looking out the window, "I guess that was too much to ask for, huh?" He looked back at her with a small smile.
She reached out and pushed his hair out of his face smiling back.
"Not at all, I understand, and hopefully talking to Dumbledore will help him ensure that it happens." she placed her free hand on top of their intertwined ones.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said softly.
"No problem," she replied, her voice just as soft as his as they stared at one another.
"Gee, did you two want me to leave so that you can be alone?"
She quickly pulled away from Harry's grasp and flung herself to the opposite side of the seat, looking at her boyfriend. Ron's face was red and he looked as though he were fighting to control his temper.
"No, of course not, don't be silly Ronald." she said in (almost) a normal tone.
"Yeah, it's nothing like that and you know it," she heard Harry say from beside her.
She nodded her head in agreement, ignoring the small voice in the back of her head that called her a liar.
"Whatever," Ron mumbled, looking at the door.
A second later, it opened and Zach stuck his head in.
"Hey, Hermione, Ron it's time for us to do our patrol," he said with a grin oblivious to the tension in the small room.
Ron got up quickly and without another word, walked out of the room not even bothering to give backwards glance to see if his girlfriend was following. Hermione turned to Harry and sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Here we go again," she muttered, following him out. "Ron!" she called out, exiting the compartment, "Ron! Ronald!" she said more forcefully when he still didn't stop.
At the use of his whole name, the red head halted and turned, giving her an annoyed look.
"What?" He asked shortly.
She frowned at him "Would you stop being such a git?" she demanded, her eyes flashing.
"Tell you what, I'll stop being a git if you hand in your membership card to the Harry Potter fan club." he retorted angrily.
"I am not one of those airhead girls in that club and you know it," she said between gritted teeth. "If you're going to act like this every time I talk to Harry or any other guy then perhaps this isn't going to work."
He looked at her in shock, the anger dissipating from his face.
"Hermione, I-" he said softly, then sighed "okay, I get your point and I'm sorry. It's just... I care about you... and, well, I have for so long I...I just worry about loosing you. I'm sorry I was being a git. Forgive me?"
Hermione knew that she was going to forgive him but instead of answering straight away she looked at him for a moment like she was thinking about it. Ron fidgeted nervously with his cuffs and gave her an anxious look. Finally feeling as though he had squirmed enough, she gave a small smile.
"Okay," she said; he grinned, "but don't let it happen again."
He gave a smile and an enthusiastic nod before sweeping her into his arms and into another tight hug.
"Oh, spare me," a voice drawled from behind them. Hermione felt Ron stiffen and she pulled away. Turning, she glared at the owner of the voice.
"What do you want?" Ron asked badly.
"I want a world where you can walk down the corridor and not be assaulted by the disgusting sight of poor pathetic wizards and their Mudblood girlfriends." Draco sneered.
Hermione glared at him "Watch it, Malfoy."
"Or what, Granger?"
"Or you'll be demoted," a strong voice said from behind Malfoy.
The three of them looked to see Harry standing there with his wand raised.
"Or did you forget that Head Girl trumps Prefect," he asked with a smirk his gaze mocking.
Draco glared at him.
"So, I suggest you run along. I don't' think that your daddy can save your rank from prison."
"This isn't over, Potter," the blond responded fairly spitting out the name.
"I wouldn't expect it to be, Malfoy," Harry replied in the same tone, his expression still mocking.
Giving them all one last glower, Draco turned and stormed down the corridor with a dramatic flip of his robes.
"Someone's trying to give Snape some competition," Ron mumbled, watching the blonde's robes flutter.
Harry and Hermione looked at him for a moment before the three of them burst into laughter. After Hermione and Ron completed their rounds, the rest of the trip to school proceeded without incident, Ron had apologized to Harry when they returned for being a git, to which Harry responded "that's okay, I'm used to it." That cheeky remark got him a hard punch in the arm, and they relaxed into a steady and comfortable conversation.
A.N. That's it for Ch7. I know that the first part was slightly redundant but I wanted to cover some of those things from Harry's POV, just bare with me. Also I decided to make a student staff member section of the train, just for the initial trip to Hogwarts so that all the Prefects and student in leadership positions would be together and easier to find -oh, and also because it helped for the plot to not have Ginny in the compartment (something I'm sure that none of you minded). *wink* Next we make it to Hogwarts… Please stay tuned and Please Review!!
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