Just some Golden Trio fluff. Not exactly my usual fare, but enjoy.
Setting: Fourth year, between Yule Ball and Second Task, Ron and Hermione have forgiven and forgotten the Yule Ball fiasco. It's a late night in the Gryffindor Common Room.
Harry groaned as Ron checkmated him for what felt like the millionth consecutive time. Why he kept accepting Ron's requests to play chess was beyond him.
Glancing around, Harry noticed the common room was empty. The last people must have gone to bed during the last couple of minutes.
Ron was sat on the other side of the chessboard, a lazy grin on his face, he himself now lying carelessly in the stuffed armchair he'd claimed some time during first year.
Harry himself was sat on the couch closest to the fireplace, and he too slumped back, his head resting lazily against the couch.
Hermione was sat next to him, paging through a thick book on expansion charms... No wait, she'd been reading that a month ago… Never mind then, Harry had no clue what Hermione was reading. The boys had long since given up on trying to remember what books Hermione was reading at any precise moment in time, as there wouldn't have been any room left in their heads for classes if they did.
"You figured out a way to breathe underwater, mate?" Ron asked, not even bothering to look at Harry, instead keeping his head turned towards the fire.
"No," Harry groaned tiredly, "I've been in the library every single minute when I wasn't eating or sleeping and still nothing! This is the first rest I've had in a week! Whatever's going to be stolen, I sure hope it'll be something replaceable."
Hermione spoke up, not bothering to glance up from the book she was reading, "We'll find something Harry. There has to be something, otherwise the task would've been different. We just have to keep looking." Hermione then yawned tiredly, rubbing at her eyes with the hand she'd been using to flip the pages.
Ron finally managed to move his head so that he could watch his friends, taking a good look at Hermione, he gasped in surprise, "Hermione! You look as if you haven't slept in years!"
Hermione just kept paging through her book, scanning the pages for who knew what.
Lifting his head, Harry took a look at Hermione as well. Her hair was exceptionally frizzy, her eyes were small and had bags under them, and she was visibly repressing a yawn.
Frowning, Harry stole Hermione's book before passing it to Ron to get it out of the bookworm's reach.
Hermione frowned before halfheartedly waving her hand towards Ron, "Give that back," She mumbled, "I'm reading that!" Hermione tried to hiss angrily, but it came out as a tired mumble.
Ron flipped the book to look at the title before reading out loud, "Stupendous Submarine Survival: Underwater magic."
Harry looked at Hermione in a mix of exasperation and fondness, "Hermione! You shouldn't do this to yourself. I'm really grateful that you're helping me look for the Second Task, but you are allowed to take breaks you know!"
"Jus' five more mints," Hermione slurred tiredly, her eyes already half closed, her body sagging and her head coming to rest on Harry's shoulder.
Ron slowly managed to get to his feet, even as Harry slowly rearranged Hermione's upper body a bit so she wouldn't wake up with a painful neck.
"You reckon we should wake her and send her to bed?" Harry asked Ron softly, suddenly feeling drowsy as well.
"Nah, just let her take a quick nap. You know if we wake her up know she'll deny everything and continue reading." Ron muttered, rummaging around out of Harry's line of sight for a few seconds before reappearing, holding a comfortable looking red quilt. Harry wasn't an expert, but it looked pretty Mrs. Weasley-ish.
Ron sat down on Hermione's free side before lifting her feet into his lap, letting Harry shift her head onto his thigh.
Ron tossed one side of the quilt to Harry, and the boys worked to tuck in their friend for a few moments.
Once they deemed Hermione suitably comfy and warm, both boys let out simultaneous, tired groans. Their head dropped back and they weren't quite able to keep their eyes open.
"How're the Cannons doing?" Harry mumbled through immobile lips, Ron only understanding him thanks to the fact that the boys had been sharing a dorm for four years, and this wasn't the first time Harry asked something in that particular way.
"Right now," Ron spoke dryly, "I reckon they're all sleeping."
Harry chuckled before growing silent.
Nobody was talking in the room now, which allowed more subtle sounds such as the soft crackling of the fire, the ticking of the grandfather clock on the other side of the room, and Hermione Granger's sleep-talking, which more resembled sleep-mumbling, to lull first Harry, and then Ron to sleep. That made light, quick snores join the concerto, and then deep and slower snores added on to that.
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Hermione slowly woke up, identifying a wet spot near the heel of her foot as the most likely cause for her leaving of the land of sleep.
Lifting her head slightly to examine what caused said wet spot, Hermione was slightly surprised to spot her feet resting on someone's lap, that someone turning out to be Ronald Weasley.
The wet spot which was responsible for waking her from her oh so blessed rest, was the result of Ron drooling slightly, a small amount of drool having dropped out of his mouth and onto his thigh, where a small spot had formed, and that spot had slowly expanded until it was touching Hermione's foot.
With a fond smile, Hermione moved her leg a couple of inches, away from Ron's drool spot, before realizing her head was resting on something which whilst quite comfortable, was obviously not a pillow.
Glancing up, Hermione wasn't all that surprised by the sight of her other best friend, Harry Potter.
Harry's glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose, and they were bound to fall off any second, which would probably wake Harry up.
Pulling one of her arms out from under the quilt she had on her, Hermione reached up before carefully removing Harry's glasses, managing to place them on the chessboard her friends had been using earlier without having to move her upper body.
Feeling that warm fondness she'd grown accustomed to when around her two best friends settle in her chest, Hermione slowly leaned back again before closing her eyes, allowing herself to drift off to sleep.
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Ron woke up slowly, lazily, he was about to go back to sleep when he felt the reason for having woken up in the first place. He had a pool of drool in his mouth, and he felt a tad hungry.
Glancing around, Ron noticed an empty cup and a sandwich with ham and cheese. Ron immediately disposed of his drool in the cup before slowly digging into his sandwich, being careful not to disturb either of his sleeping friends.
Putting away the cup and polishing off the last of his sandwich, Ron leaned back to resume his sleep. When he glanced at where he'd put the cup, he noticed it had disappeared already.
Thinking fondly of the mad little Dobby, who'd probably been responsible for the random appearing and disappearing of just what he'd needed, Ron glanced to his other side, at Hermione and Harry.
Hermione was still mumbling softly in her sleep, and Ron was pretty sure he managed to catch snippet of what was probably a detailed dream-explanation for the use of some kind of spell which apparently involved a stab in the wand movement.
Harry on the other hand was extremely silent, and if he hadn't been listening very carefully for it, Ron was pretty sure he'd never have heard the very soft snores that Harry produced, barely more than the sound of normal breathing.
That was good, as long as Harry didn't make much noise or wild movements when he slept, he wasn't having any bad dreams.
Satisfied, Ron closed his eyes to nod off again.
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Harry woke slowly, disappointed when he realized that the enormous treacle tart he'd been running toward, had apparently been no more than a dream.
Glancing down at Hermione, Harry was pleased to note she was sleeping peacefully, even if she was apparently mumbling an explanation about the uses of some kind of root extract.
Glancing over at his male best friend, Harry noticed Ron's head had moved so that the drool which was like always leaking from his mouth, would land on an empty piece of couch, instead of landing on either himself or Hermione. It still puzzled Harry how Ron could snore so loudly without expelling all of the drool that had gathered in his mouth in one firm breath.
Harry considered waking his friends and suggesting they all move to their respective beds, but then he felt a powerful yawn coming up, which he managed to tone down to a silent expelling of breath.
Closing his eyes, Harry changed his mind. He always slept better when they were like this, his friends in arms reach and just nodding off only to wake up when the sun was rising.
Happy with the current situation, Harry fell asleep again, the Second Task not having crossed his mind even once.
Yes, this is fluffy, and yes, this is not something I usually write. But I was surfing the interwebs when I was assaulted by a vision of Hermione dozing whilst leaning against Harry, whilst Ron was rummaging around for a blanket for the exhausted girl, and that morphed into this. Not my usual style, just a oneshot, don't expect more, hope you liked, review if you want. That's all.