Ace of Hearts
Chapter 3
'Stop it! Ron is your boyfriend, not Harry! You shouldn't even notice him in that way!' She stopped hitting her head against the cupboard and took a deep breath. 'Ron, Ron, Ron!' Hermione did a slow mental mantra, focusing on a small chip in the paint on the wall opposite her. She then did her best to conjure up a picture of Ron from last night, feeling as though she had it, she closed her eyes one more and once again -she saw a shirtless Harry. Hermione began to bang her head against the cabinet yet again.
A throat cleared on her third pound and Hermione's eyes flew open.
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Ron was standing at the entrance to the kitchen looking at her as though she were daft and just behind him was a smiling Harry.
"You know Hermione," Harry laughed, "if you felt the cupboards were loose you could have just used your wand to tighten them. You didn't have to use your head."
Between his laugher and Ron, who was still looking at her strangely, she was so embarrassed her coloring went from flesh tone to tomato in zero point three seconds flat. Throwing Harry a glare, Hermione turned around and proceeded to pick up some lizard egg shells off of the counter.
"When was the last time you two cleaned this place?" She asked not turning around. A moment later she heard their hearty laughter at her obvious change of subject. Once they were done sniggering the two of them joined her in the kitchen. Harry had just picked up another empty box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans when she heard Ron groan.
"Come on you guys," he sighed "I know you grew up in muggle homes, but get with the times here. You don't have to do everything the hard way," with a flick of his wand Ron deposited everything in its proper place -he even had the pots that he had used to cook washing themselves.
Harry and Hermione shared and amused glance, quickly realizing that Ron was right. The redhead gave a satisfied smile and then, rubbing his hands together, he turned to Harry with and expectant look.
"Well?... Where's the pizza?"
The dark haired man shrugged and ran his hand through his hair "Sorry, I was just starting to pick up this place when Hermione showed. Then I had" he threw her a pointed look "to go to the bedroom to put on some clothes. By the time I got back you were already here and Hermione was using her head to play bongo's with the cabinet, so... I sorta forgot."
"Awww, come on Harry I'm starving," Ron wined, his stomach grumbled in agreement.
"Sorry, like I said some things came up and it slipped my mind..."
"Harry we agreed, I would go change and you would order pizza."
"Well I would have, but it turned out that I had to go change too."
"Well couldn't you have ord-"
"Really boys," Hermione interrupted "two seconds, that's what it takes to order a pizza. I mean really," she grumbled. Making her way to the fireplace she then threw in some floo powder and stated the name of the pizzeria.
"Madam Minerva's Magical Pizza," a floating head of a tattooed teenaged witch appeared with an annoyed look. "Better than muggle's and thrice as quick, get you pizza in a lizard's lick," she finished rolling her eyes and popping her color-changing gum.
"Yes," said Hermione sitting in front of the fire. "Can we have one lily weed, sprout and beef pizza -extra large. And one..." she turned slightly, "Harry did you want to split a pizza or did you want one of your own?"
Harry was sitting on the couch just to her right, he had leaned back into a relaxed position with both of his leg braced apart and his left arm across the back of the couch. He had changed into a black t-shirt and blue jeans with white socks. Shrugging, rubbing his eyes and then once again running a hand through his hair, he replied.
"I'm willing to share, I don't think I could eat a whole pizza tonight," then, an amused look crossing his face continued. "Heck, after seeing Ron's kitchen soup it's a wonder I'd be able to eat anything at all." Less than a second later he was hit in the side of the head with a pillow that Ron, who was sitting on the couch behind Hermione, had thrown causing the three of them to laugh.
"Hel-lo," remarked young witch impatiently from the fireplace, regaining Hermione's attention "Will there be anything else?"
"Oh, of course, sorry about that," when the girl rolled her eyes once more Hermione frowned at her rudeness. "May I have get one more extra large pizza this one with pepperoni, extra cheese and firesnaps -oh! And can we finish that off with three-" she noticed Ron motioning in her peripheral visions "no, four bottles of butterbeer and some spicy flying buffalo wings?"
The witch disappeared from sight for a second before returning with a small piece of parchment.
"That'll be two galleons, seven sickles, and three knuts please," her hand extended from the fireplace
holding the receipt. Harry came forward taking the parchment from the floating hand and placing the money into it. One
moment later two hands appeared balancing two extra large pizza boxes, one smaller box containing the wings and four
butterbeers.
"Thank you and have a magical evening," she said once the items were taken from her hand and disappeared from sight. With all communication done the fire quickly burnt down.
"Great!" exclaimed Ron "Let's tuck in, I positively starved here!"
He rubbed his hands together before taking the boxes from Harry and placing them on the table, the three friends then sat down to eat and chat. Harry told Hermione about kitchen soup and Ron told them both what he put in it... or at least what he could remember.
About twenty minutes later they were all gloriously full and sitting on the couches watching Harry's tellie. Ron and Hermione were on the long sofa across from the fireplace, while Harry was sitting on the love seat just to the right. They were watching a rerun of a muggle show called `Beverly Hills 90210', which for reasons unknown to Harry; Ron had taken a liking to.
Hermione was trying to pay attention to the show but found her gaze wondering back to Harry again and again. For his part the dark haired man wasn't paying attention at all to what was going on. Since in his words he "Found most of the characters bratty and annoying". Even though she agreed Hermione still liked the show. Harry had instead opted to catch up on some much needed rest and was stretched out on the loveseat. His long body was facing towards her and Ron. He had one foot on the couch with his leg bent and the other placed firmly on the floor. She couldn't see his face because his head was leaning back, but she could see his long graceful neck. His Adams apple was sticking out slightly, in a masculine sexy way and every time he would swallow it would jump a little. Hermione quickly became entranced with the sight. Her eyes fixated on that point of his neck and she unconsciously licked her lips as she watched him. She was abruptly taken from her fantasy when the credits started to roll and Ron, whose head was in her lap, started kissing her stomach.
"Ron," she whispered, "stop it, Harry's less than a foot away."
"So," he replied casting a glance at his sleeping best friend. "He's had a long day and a full meal -he's out like a light trust me." Ron then began placing light kisses on her stomach once more and began making his way up her torso towards her chest. She slapped his hand when it cupped her breast.
"Sleep or not I'm not comfortable doing this with him being so close."
Ron sighed and let his head fall to her chest.
"Okay, then lets go," he stood, taking her hand and pulling her up with him "we'll go to my room." He led her out of the living room, past the kitchen, through the hall to his bedroom, which was the first door on the left in the flat.
They entered the room, softly closing the door behind them; Ron then used his wand to turn on the low light lamp and to start the radio, which was set to a romantic tune. Turning to face her he placed his hands in her hair and leaning down he began a long lingering kiss on her lips before moving to her neck. Hermione wrapped her arms around Ron's neck and ran her fingers through his hair, a soft moan escaped from between her lips when he kissed just below her ear, hearing this he captured her mouth with is own. She broke the kiss and placed her mouth on his neck causing him to be the one to groan this time. As her mouth reached his Adams apple she flicked her tough across it, hearing more sounds of pleasure from her partner she began to kiss it and while doing so she closed her eyes... and saw Harry.
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As soon as he heard the door close and the soft romantic music playing Harry opened his eyes and expelled the breath
that he had been holding. He did not want to think about what Ron and Hermione were doing in
that bedroom. All he knew is that he was grateful that Hermione stopped Ron from doing it out here.
Harry stood up and stretched, he was still tired, but didn't want to risk walking past Ron's room to get to his. After all he wasn't just out of the schoolroom and understood well how things worked and the last thing that he wanted was to go to his room, lie down, and hear them "working". He rubbed his shoulders feeling weary, and then with a flick of the wand he summoned the blanket off of his bed and lay on the couch Ron and Hermione had just vacated to get some rest.
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He awoke a while later upon hearing some noise, once again, from the kitchen. Harry sat up on the couch taking a minute
to focus and grab his glasses off of the end table.
"Oh!" he heard. Turning his head he saw Hermione standing there with a mug of steaming tea. "I didn't know you were in here."
'Wow,' he thought 'she looks beautiful.'
Hermione was standing before him wearing one of Ron's oversized Quidditch t-shirts. It was a maroon coloring and fell to about mid-thigh on her. She didn't seem to be wearing shorts so the shirt and some socks that were pulled up mid-calf, were the only things covering her long shapely legs. Her hair hung loose and fell just past her shoulders framing her lovely oval shaped face. Though her it was not as bushy as when they were kids it was still by no means considered tame -especially now when it had a slightly rumpled appearance to it. The light from the kitchen glowed from behind her giving her an almost ethereal look... she had changed a lot since their Hogwarts years. Though her face looked the same it now held a look certain of maturity that, of course, she didn't have in her youth. Her body was toned and well proportioned, her breasts weren't small but also weren't overly large, she had a small waist, he could span the width of it with one hand, medium sized hips and a round firm behind. Her eye's, Harry's favorite part of her -well next to her behind, were still a warm cocoa color, but held a large amount of intelligence and a mature type of understanding. Shaking his head to clear his wayward thoughts of his best mates' girl, Harry stood up and stretched. Making sure to turn away so Hermione wouldn't see her effect on him and therefore failing to noticing her gaze scan his form and linger on his backside before he faced her.
"Can I have one of those?" He asked motioning towards her mug of tea.
"Of course," she replied looking around. After a moment she seemed to realize that she didn't have her wand so she sat her mug on the table and went into the kitchen to get the tea manually. While she was gone Harry walked over to the kitchen table to have a seat.
"Do you have your wand?" Hermione called from the kitchen.
"Yeah, sure," not feeling like getting up Harry made a motion with his hand summoning his wand to him.
He had just gotten hold of it when Hermione walked back in with a mug of water in one hand and a tea bag in the other. She sat the mug before Harry who used his wand to heat the water. Once he was done she dropped the bag in, while he simultaneously lent forward and used his wand to reheat her tea. Hermione smiled at his thoughtfulness.
"Thanks," she said taking a seat across from him still smiling "it's always better piping hot."
Harry laughed softly and after a moment of comfortable silence she spoke again.
"So what was your emergency yesterday that had you out all night?"
Harry sighed "Well our intelligence has gotten word that Bellatrix Lestrange has resurfaced-"
"Wait -I thought that she had disappeared after you defeated Voldemort?"
"She did, so we all just assumed that she was dead you know? I mean since Bellatrix fancied herself in love with Voldemort it would have been no surprise if she had killed herself after his death. After all she was always a bit of a kook," he shrugged, taking a long sip of his tea before continuing. "But from what we've gathered she resurfaced last week showing up in Transylvania-"
"Fitting," Hermione interrupted; Harry smiled. He had thought the same thing upon hearing her location.
"Well our source says that she went to Transylvania to try to recruit the head of a vampire legion called the
Sociopathic Satanists."
"Charming," she remarked with a smirk, causing him to give another grin at her wit.
"Anyway, she supposedly had a meeting with their leader Gideon Blackheart. It seems that she has taken into her head that, had he not been killed, Voldemort would have made her his queen. So therefore believes it's her duty to rebuild forces needed to take over once more and make the world pure."
Hermione rolled her eyes. Did that dingbat ever quit? "So what did you have to go in for yesterday?"
"Well, myself and Aurora Centauri -a fellow Auror whose brother is a vampire, had to head to Transylvania to check things out. Upon arriving we met with her brother and a few of the members of his tribe. They recalled hearing about Bellatrix's presence but none of them had seen her themselves and since they aren't a part of Gideon's tribe they really didn't have much info," he finished with a sigh.
"Did you contact... is it Gideon?" she continued when he nodded in affirmation. "Did you contact someone in Gideon's tribe?"
"No unfortunately, though we're working on it we haven't been able to find someone on the inside of his group yet. I mean this group of vampires..." he shook his head. "Let me put it this way, they are the meaning of the term 'blood thirsty,'" he finished, rubbing his neck.
Hermione sighed watching him as he tried to rub some of the tension out of his shoulder 'I wish I could help, but it's better for both of us if I just don't touch him,' she thought.
As if he heard her thoughts Harry stopped rubbing his shoulder and looked at with a small smile.
"So, how did it go with the Lilith Hearth? Were you able to find anything that helped?"
Hermione's face lit up and she leaned forward grabbing Harry's hand in excitement.
"That's why I Apparated directly over, you'll never believe what happened..." she launched into her days events with exuberance and cheerfully told him of the potion they made that might actually work. As the two continued to chat happily, they didn't even seem to realize that they were still holding hands.
AN: End chapter 3.... Stay tuned for chapter four, which will hopefully be up soon. Oh and don't kill me. I promise that is the ONE and ONLY intimate scene between Ron and Hermione, however I felt it had to be there just for the last part of it -so don't run away screaming. Please remember to Please Review!! THX and Ja ne!!!
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