I don't own the Harry Potter franchise. Believe it!
This will be a series of one-shot fics. They won't be back-to-back like a chapter story, but each story oneshot will follow a chronological order. Thanks for reading!
"I take it Ron's still ignoring me because he's a gigantic arse?"
Harry Potter settled into his chair by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room with a perturbed look on his face as he stared into the flames of the fireplace, his right hand balled into a fist at the edge of the armrest. Sitting down in a chair alongside him, Hermione Granger cautiously reached out and placed her own hand atop his, and it slowly, but surely relaxed from its coiled state, flatting out against the arm of the chair instead.
"I'm sorry," the brown-eyed girl said to him in a sad tone of voice, keeping her hand atop his. "I tried to convince him to come study with us after hours, but he shrugged off the idea of it. Again. I don't know why I keep trying."
"I don't know, either," Harry answered her at once, still looking on into the fireplace. "I know it bothers you when he blows you off like that, even if it's just over me."
"Just over you?" Hermione repeated back, her brow creasing. "Harry, you're not a, a… just anything. And besides, Ron can be discontent and stupid about this whole thing all he wants. Oh, woe is me, I wasn't entered into a death-trap tournament." Then glancing at Harry's sideways look at her, the witch added, "Er, I'm sure it won't be a death trap for you, though, not if you study up enough on the tasks, Harry."
"Who cares about studying?" he replied, his eyes returning to rest on the flames. "Well, who other than you? When one of your best friends is being a prat over something you didn't even do, and the other one pities you for it on top of it-"
"Now, Harry-"
"Don't try to tell me you don't pity me," Harry interrupted her, as she'd interrupted him, moving his hand out from beneath hers as he again balled it into a fist. "Always trying to get he or I to resolve things with one another."
"Sorry for trying to help," the witch muttered defensively, rolling her eyes. "Boys."
"This is not about us being boys, it's about Ron being stupid and refusing to listen to me," Harry snapped back.
Standing up from her chair, Hermione huffed out an uneven breath, before saying, "Well, I'll be off to bed then. I'll study tomorrow during breaks."
"Why can't we study right now?" Harry demanded to know.
"Because who can study when their head is being bitten off?" Hermione answered him in a raised, stung tone of voice.
Frowning as he looked up at her, the bespectacled fourteen year old locked eyes with his friend for a moment, before softening his expression, a look of regret coming onto his face instead of anger or annoyment.
"I… Hermione, I'm sorry for being a jerk to you just now. I just feel too… overwhelmed lately. But I'm sorry." Reaching upward and taking her hand, tugging at it, he added, "Please sit back down. Don't leave on account of me acting like a prat."
Looking down at her friend as he continued to hold onto her hand, Hermione finally relented and indeed took her seat once more in a chair alongside his, gently releasing his hand as she folded her arms across her bosom. "Even with the fire," she said. "It's still a bit chilly in here."
"Yeah, kind of," Harry agreed, before getting up and moving over to a chair at the other side of the Common Room; he returned seconds later with a blanket that had been abandoned on one of the other seats, unfolding it to drape it over his friend.
Smiling, Hermione, snuggling up beneath it and said, "Thanks, Harry. But, what about you? Is there no other blanket?"
"I don't see one," the wizard replied, his eyes briefly scanning the room. "It's alright. I'll be fine."
"No, no, come on," Hermione said, standing up and taking the blanket with her as she walked over to the nearby couch, nodding her head in its direction to motion that Harry should follow after her. "We'll share the blanket on the couch. It'll be easier to study there anyway."
"Well, okay then," Harry said to her, also moving to make his way over to the couch as Hermione did.
Plopping down simultaneously on the cushions, the pair spread the blanket across both themselves, and then Hermione took out her wand and pointed it over to a table at the other side of the room. "Accio books."
Watching as a small pile of textbooks floated mid-air across the room, zooming in closer to the couch until they finally landed on Hermione's lap, Harry smiled. She was brilliant, but still had her lazy moments, too, like any other witch or wizard or muggle.
"Which subject shall we start with?" she asked aloud as she spread the books into neat rows on either of their laps, as they sat side by side, before answering herself, "Charms? Yes, Charms."
Shrugging slighty, Harry said, "Sure. We have to work on our Obscuro spell anyway for tomorrow, right?"
"Right," Hermione agreed, before pointing her wand directly at Harry, who flinched.
Sighing and again rolling her eyes, the witch said, "Harry, do you even know what Obscuro does?"
"Blindfolds? It blindfolds the person it's used on, yeah. Yes. Definitely that. I think..."
Closing her eyes as if feigning a wince, Hermione said, "Yes, correct - so then why are you flinching at the thought of being hexted by it?"
"I don't know," Harry replied with a shrug. "You see a wand pointed at your face, you flinch. It's a normal reaction to getting something you weren't expecting."
"But you should've been expecting it," Hermione countered as she re-opened her eyes and raised her eyebrows. "I mean, come on, otherwise there'd be a classroom full of flinching students every time we practiced casting hex-"
"Orchideous!" Harry exclaimed out of the blue, pointing his wand at Hermione's face as he did so; the protruding boquet of flowers that proceeded forth from the wand brushed her nose, causing her to sneeze. "Bless you."
"Thank you," she said, wiping at her nose with the sleeve of her sweater. "But why in the world did you just do that anyway?"
"To try to make you flinch," Harry said simply, relaxing his wand.
"Oh, for goodness sake, you are not going to make me flinch! Now are we going to study Obscuro or not?"
"Of course we- Rictusempra!"
Doubling over nearly immediately with a fit of the giggles, Hermione grasped at either of her sides as she hugged herself, a tickling sensation driving her to wriggle right off the couch, landing sideways on the floor. "St-Stop it, Harry!" she said through her laughter, before tossing her head back and giggling even harder.
"Er… I don't know how to!" he exclaimed, now appearing panicked rather than smug as he, too, got to the floor, on his hands and knees as he made it to Hermione's side. "What's the counter curse?"
"F-F-" Hermione stuttered, still laughing uncontrollably, now as she rolled over onto her stomach.
"F-what?" Harry said to her, now looking positively alarmed as the tickling continued to subdue Hermione, bringing tears to her eyes, he could see, as she rolled once more over onto her back; deciding to control the matter any which way he could, Harry quickly moved to hover over his friend, holding back each of her wrists to the floor as he straddled her, his knees at either of her sides, holding her down so she could barely budge as the tickling jinx continued to make her giggle. "Now tell me again, how do I stop this charm?"
"Finite… F-f… Finite Incan… Incanatem!" she managed in between giggles and stolen breaths.
"Right," Harry said, before releasing one of Hermione's wrists and instead picking up and aiming his wand at her again, stating clearly as he did so, "Finite Incanatem!"
At once, the witch beneath him relaxed, and Harry did as well, sighing as his rigid shoulders relaxed, his wand dropping to the floor. "Wow, I'm really sorry about that," he said, somewhat sheepishly as Hermione glared up at him from the floor where she remained, feeling slightly sore all over. "Really, I am."
When Hermione said nothing, Harry added, "I really, really am."
Sighing heavily, the brown-eyed girl finally calmed herself a bit and said, "I laughed myself off of the couch entirely. Was that enough of a flinch for you?"
"Eh, frankly... no," Harry said at once, though he continued to look apologetic. "It was a tickle, not a flinch. Still, sorry. So sorry."
"Whatever. Forgiven. Look, do you mind letting me up then?" Hermione replied, and it was then that Harry realized he was still straddling her, and quickly moved to scramble away, before getting to his feet and offering her a hand to stand up, as well. "Again, so very sorry," he said once more as she did so.
"Oh, it's all right. It really is. I'm just glad I'm not being tickled anymore. That was terrible. I'd think twice before using it again if I were you. I know I will."
"Really? Being… tickled was really so bad?" Harry dared to ask, and before he could blink, Hermione had her wand pointed right at his chest. "Oh, come on! You yourself just said we should both think twice before using it, Hermione!"
"Okay," the witch replied, hesitating for a few seconds, before then saying, "Well, I've thought about it twice. Shall I commence? Rictusempra!"
Instantly, Harry was back on the floor, this time rolling from side to side, crying out in fits of laughter as an insane tickling sensation took over his entire body. "Hermione, stop it!"
"Why? The fun's only just begun. It's only a little tickling spell after all."
"H-H-Hermione!"
"Oh, alright, alright," she relented, casually flicking her wand as she murmured, "Finite Incanatem."
Taking in a deep breath as the tickling sensation vanished, Harry relaxed and stretched back somewhat on the floor, looking up at Hermione as she seemingly towered over him. "You're right. I will think twice before using that one again."
"Good to know the lesson's learned," she replied, before reaching down and offering a hand to Harry; rather than taking it and standing, the green-eyed teenager jerked his hand back unexpectedly, pulling Hermione atop him as he lay there on the floor.
As she collapsed atop him with a soft oomph! sound, Hermione dropped her wand to the floor, where it criss-crossed atop Harry's. "We are never going to study tonight, are we?" she asked him wryly, moving a hand to straighten his glasses on his face, as they'd gone crooked during his tickle spell induced writhing fit.
"Well I was certainly hoping to," Harry replied. "I'm really not sure if I have the knack for the spell down right yet or not."
"Why don't you give it a try then?" Hermione suggested.
"Okay," Harry agreed, before reaching over and picking up what he thought to be his wand. "Obscuro!"
The second the charm left his mouth, the wizard realized that he was not holding his own wand, and he sat bolt upright in horror as he watched the hex he cast from his friend's wand have a bizarre affect, where it sent her flying backward across the room, ultimating when she landed against the back of an arm chair. Scrambling to his feet, Harry ran over and knelt down at her side, placing a hand at the side of Hermione's face. "Are you okay?" he asked, eyes wide.
"I'll be fine. I landed against something soft," she answered him, before taking her wand from his hand and adding, "But I think that's enough studying for the night."
"But we didn't even cover one subject!" Harry protested.
"Sure we did. We positively conquered Rictusempra," Hermione retorted, getting to her feet as Harry remained knelt by the chair.
"Aw, come on, that's no fair," he said as he, too, stood. "What if I fail something, hmm? Do you really want that on your shoulders?"
"Stop sounding like Ron," Hermione said then, and Harry shot her a dirty look. "What?" she said. "Well you just did."
"Maybe we are done studying for the night," Harry said to her.
"Well, fine."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Fine," Harry repeated back, needing to get the last word in.
"Oh, stop being silly," Hermione said to him, clearly quite aggravated as she stalked back over to the couch, sitting down again as she picked up the book for Charms class. "Obscuro is best achieved with a slight flick of the wrist to the right when the spell itself is said, and said clearly," she read aloud from it. "Wanna give it another go?"
"Sure," Harry replied as he retrieved his own wand from the floor; pointing it at Hermione, he indeed flicked his wrist slightly to the right, saying, "Obscuro!"
At once, a blindfold of sorts shrouded the witch's vision entirely, and she smiled, clapping her hands politely. "Great job, Harry! I can't see a thing."
"Good," he answered her, before approaching her and leaning forward, quickly planting the most chaste of kisses to her lips; she nearly jumped in response, her heart skipping a beat just once, before resuming and going into full-blown overdrive.
After muttering the counter curse to lift the shroud and seeing the look of surprise on Hermione's face, Harry gave her a crooked smile and said, "Made you flinch, didn't I?"
A/N: this will hopefully be updated with a new oneshot soon enough. Thanks again for reading!
