Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Seamus and Hermione
Time Period: Deathly Hallows
Written by colour-of-forgetmenots
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Characters and canon settings all belong to J.K. Rowling.I make no money out of this, as this is simply fan-made.
Two Lions
Chapter One
"It's a bit warm in here, isn't it?" she asked fanning herself with her hand, "Viktor's just gone to get us some drinks."
The boy turned to her and gave her a withering look, "Viktor?" he said, "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky, yet
She looked at him in surprise, "What's up with you?"
"Haven't you figured it out yet?" he said
She glared at him, before replying, "No. What on Earth are you t-"
"He's using you." The boy snapped
His words were said with such venom, that they really stung her.
"Using me? What's that supposed to mean?"
It was the Yule Ball of 1994, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Ronald Weasley could not contain his jealousy that Hermione Granger had gone to the ball with Viktor Krum.
"I mean that exactly. And besides, he's Durmstrang; you're fraternizing with the enemy!"
"The enemy? That's ridiculous, Ronald! The whole competition is about making friends!"
"Oh well, I think he's got a bit more than friendship on his mind." Ron snorted
At this, Hermione did not want to be around an aggravated Ron, so she turned on her heel, and started making her way to the exit of the Great Hall. Though Ron, in a mood for a fight, followed Hermione
"Hey," Ron said angrily, "hey, I'm not done here."
"Well I am." Hermione said, walking so fast that her curly brown hair had begun to undo itself from her elegant knot, letting strands fall everywhere.
Ron was competing against her fast pace, "What do you see in him anyway?"
"Who said I do?" Hermione snapped
"Well it looks like you fancy him."
"Should I, Ronald?" Hermione growled
"No," Ron said
Hermione tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and sped up, Ron following.
"Besides, he's much too old," Ron said
"What," Hermione exclaimed, "what! That's what you think!"
"Yeah that's what I think."
Hermione stopped in her tracks, feeling the tears build up in her eyes; she vigorously tried to blink them away. She whipped her head over to Ron, shooting him a second quick glare before speaking, "Well you must know the answer to this question then, don't you?"
"Go on," Ron spat
"Next time there's a ball," Hermione said, her voice uneven from her emotions, "ask me before somebody else does and not as last resort!"
"Fine" growled Ron
Hermione spun around now, away from Ron, and was met by a boy with round glasses, raven hair, bright green eyes and a lightening scar on his forehead, looking at her slightly confused by the fact that she was near tears. The boy caught a sight of Ron, behind Hermione's shoulder, casting Rom a quick glare, before turning his attention back to Hermione. He opened his mouth to say something which was important at the time, but she silenced him.
"Harry! Where have you been?"
Harry Potter, looked slightly taken aback by her outburst, after all what had he done? He opened his mouth, again to answer her, but just like before, Hermione cut him off,
"It doesn't matter. Off to bed, both of you."
Harry rolled his eyes, but left without saying anything. He walked past Hermione, who he could have sworn was about to start crying, (though he was not sure why) and made his way towards Ron, who was practically waiting for him halfway up the stone steps that lead they to the moving staircase.
Ron, who was obviously in a bad mood, said to Harry, though loudly enough so that Hermione could hear, "They get worse, as they get older."
A tear slipped from her right eye, as she whipped around to yell at the freckled redhead, "Ron! You spoil everything!"
Ron snorted without a comment, and, followed closely behind by Harry, disappeared from view.
At that point, Hermione felt another tear roll down her cheek. From there on, it quickly escalated: what had been a single tear grew into sobs that racked her body. She sat down on the cold, hard steps and let herself cry. She watched as her tears fell onto the periwinkle material, and wondered why Ron had to be that way.
She could hear The Weird Sisters performing their song "Do The Hippogriff"; she could hear the laughter and could practically sense the warm and welcoming mood, although at the moment, she was not feeling the happiness inside her that most of her fellow peers were.
No one had seemed to notice her crying on the steps.
No one, except for one person
He was dancing in the center of the dance floor, sipping his pumpkin juice from his goblet here and there, laughing, singing along, having a wonderful time. Everything had gone smoothly, until he noticed her crying.
Never once, in his three years of knowing her, had he seen her cry, so he figured that what happened must have been serious. His smile faltered slowly, as his blue eyes fell on the scene.
"Mate, what're you looking at?" asked his tall, dark-skinned friend named Dean Thomas
Neville Longbottom, his other friend, who had blonde hair, a round face and was a bit on the shorter side, turned to Dean, "What do you mean?"
His third friend, a girl who was a year younger than him (but had come to the Yule Ball, only because she had been asked by Ernie Macmillan) and had waist length dirty blonde hair, silver eyes and pale skin, turned to the three boys and said in her dreamy voice, "Why, Neville, Dean, haven't you noticed that he's looking at a girl?"
"What girl?" Dean asked
"Yeah," Neville said, "who is she?"
"I'm not quite sure..." said Luna," she appears to be crying. If I were you, I would talk to her. That might make her feel better..."
Dean's eyebrows knotted together, "Luna, what do you mean? Who's crying?"
Luna Lovegood smiled at Dean, "There's Parvati ... she looks like she'd like to dance with you."
Dean blushed, and was about to protest, when Luna continued, "You really should Dean. Harry left, so I think she might be rather bored..."
Dean blushed a bit more, but put on a brave face as he turned towards Parvati Patil and gave her a smile. Parvati blushed immensely, and beckoned for the dark-skinned wizard to join her.
As Dean went her way, Neville called out after him, "G-Good luck, Dean!"
"Thanks," said Dean with a grin
"Oh," Luna suddenly exclaimed, causing Neville to jump, spilling his pumpkin juice all over his shoes,"Neville, I love this song!"
He strained his ears, for a second, to listen to the song Luna had just told Neville about – The Weird Sisters had started to play their song, "This Is the Night"
"When all is dark and there's no light, lost in the deepest star of night. I see yooou," sang Luna,"oh Neville, I love this! This song makes me feel positively surprised in more ways than one! Let's dance!"
"B-But what about Ernie?" asked Neville, as Luna skipped around him.
His eyes were still on Hermione, and he decided to take Luna's advice and talk to her. After all, how bad could it go? As he bid his goodbyes to Luna and Neville, he heard Neville agree to dance with Luna, seeing as Ernie Macmillan, had left her for Susan Bones. Luna skipped farther into the crowd followed closely behind by Neville.
As he made his way, the music grew slightly softer. When he was near her, he cleared his throat to let her know he was there.
"Hello Hermione," he said, managing a smile
Hermione looked up at him, her face was a tear-stained mask, her eyes were rather red and her hair was back to its normal unruly self. A silence fell upon them, and for those few seconds, Hermione Granger actually looked a bit lost.
When she found her voice, it came out a bit hoarse.
"Hello Seamus"
Truth be told, she had not expected to see him, or have anyone notice her to begin with. People had only truly paid attention to her this evening when she had entered the Great Hall with Viktor, otherwise, her peers only gave her attention if she was deciding whether or not to help them with their homework or if she had answered a particularly difficult question in class. Of course, this did not include Harry and Ron who paid her attention – this included everyone else. And because she was paid so little attention by everyone except Ron and Harry, she was quite shocked to see Seamus Finnigan standing before her.
He sat down next to her, and when she realized the space between them was not very large, she suddenly found herself to be rather self-conscious. She could practically sense that she looked like a mess; her eyes were probably red, her hair must gone back to its rather wild self, she was sure her mascara was smudged and that her dress may have not looked its best, as she had been sitting on the stone steps for a long time.
Seamus could sense the tension between them. They had not really talked outside of classes, but he still considered her some sort of friend at least.
"Don' worry," he said trying to make her feel better, after all, that was what he came there for, "yeh look fine."
Hermione laughed and turned to him, "Seamus, I look worse than a banshee on Halloween."
"Worse than a banshee, eh?" he said with a grin on his face, "Well, if yeh was a banshee, I'd be scared shit less."
Hermione remember that Seamus's boggart had been a banshee, and laughed, feeling better.
"Listen'" Seamus said turning to her, "do yeh want to - and don' worry, we'll still stay friends – dance with me?"
Hermione looked at him; her warm brown eyes met his piercing blue ones, and felt herself blush. Seamus himself seemed to have gone slightly pink, but maybe it was just the lighting. Her eyes examined him, taking in all his aspects: the way his hair had begun to darken since the end of last year and was a little lighter than her own mousy brown, the color of his eyes, the pale freckles that dotted across his nose and the way he smiled... it made her feel nice, it made her feel warm on the inside.
Then she remembered – the two of them shared the same bond that she shared with Harry and Ron. In other words, they were simply friends.
"Hermione," Seamus asked, pulling Hermione out of her reverie, "do yeh?"
"Do I want to what?" Hermione asked
"Dance with me."
She thought it over, and agreed.
"Yes," Hermione said with a small smile, "I'd love too."
Seamus smiled, and grew more pink (by then, Hermione figured that it was not the lighting, and that had been blushing), as the two of them stood up and walked towards the crowd.
By now, it was near midnight, the time the Yule Ball ended, and The Weird Sisters were playing their final song, "Magic Works".
Seamus and Hermione found a spot, and drew close to each other. Hermione touched her hair with her hand, and realized that she still looked awful from crying, but Seamus whispered quietly, "Who's lookin' at you, 'Mione. It's just yeh and me."
She blushed, but listened; who really was paying attention to them? They were just another fourth year couple in the crowd; they were just Seamus and Hermione.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and Seamus wrapped his around her waist. Hermione took in his smell, the stubble smell of cologne and possibly books. Books? Yes, books. It made her calm, yet she still felt the butterflies fluttering inside her. Her hair smelt of vanilla, at least to him it did, and Seamus soon realised that he rather liked that smell.
"Thank you," Hermione whispered into his shoulder, as the chorus of the slow song was playing. Her voice made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and a shock run through him
"Thankin' me... for what?"
"For everything, Seamus" said Hermione
His surroundings suddenly grew murky, the white color of ceiling mixed with the pink of Pansy Parkinson's dress. The blue of Hermione's dress merged with the orange from Padma and Parvati's gowns. The music grew softer until he could no longer hear it, and the smell of vanilla vanished, and was replaced by an almost stuffy smell. The next thing he knew, Seamus felt a hand shacking his left shoulder and heard Dean's voice, "Seamus! Seamus, mate, wake up! C'mon!"
Next he heard Neville voice, "Hurry up, Dean! We're almost there! They're coming!"
Who were "they", and why were Dean and Neville's voices deeper? What was happening?
"I believe the Nargles are behind it," he heard Luna say, her voice sounded the same as always, dreamy and carefree.
Then his eyes shot open, Hermione's last words echoed in his head, and he realized where he was and what had happened.
It was no longer the Yule Ball of 1994. If anything, it was very far from that time. Dean, Neville, Luna and Seamus were riding on the Hogwarts Express, but this year, things were different; there was no more laughter, no more sweets being sold from the trolley, no more chatter, no more happiness. It was the year of 1996, in a few months it would be 1997. Albus Dumbledore had been killed last year, the murderer was still unknown, and what he had been happening at the Yule Ball with him and Hermione was a memory, he had been reliving a memory in his dreams, while falling asleep in the Hogwarts Express.
"Seamus," Dean snapped,"pull out your ticket, they're coming!"
"They" were Alecto and Amycus Carrow, who had recently been placed on the train to "improve" its travel time to Hogwarts to their liking.
"Tickets!" roared Amycus, storming down the narrow hallway
"Where's your ticket?" hissed Dean
"Let me get it," replied Seamus. He was tempted to pull out his wand and simply Accio the ticket in his hands from his satchel, but then remembered Rule Number 24 which had recently been passed in the Hogwarts - 'No Magic Is To Be Used On The Train, In The School, At Hogsmeade Or In Dormitories Unless Told To Be Done".
Instead, he stood up and started to search through his belongings, with a great speed, for his ticket.
The compartment door burst open, and Amycus Carrow stepped in.
"Tickets, Gryffindors?" He growled. It came out as more of a command then a question.
Seamus cursed in his head, saying things like how Amycus showed up too bloody fast and how the idea of getting their tickets punched was stupid, since it had never been done before.
"Boy," growled Amycus, turning to Seamus, "I said, show me your ticket. Your little friends over here, have already done so, so why is a little shit like you taking so long?"
Indeed while Seamus had been searching for his ticket, Dean, Neville and Luna had presented their tickets.
Seamus stopped himself from saying something offensive, as he finally found his Hogwarts Express ticket and handed it to the Death Eater.
"Irish, eh?" drawled Amycus as he inspected the ticket, "says right here on the back."
There was a pause as the man before them rummaged through his black cloak, and pulled out a shiny golden ticket punch, and punched a neat hole on the right-side of Seamus's ticket.
"Your mum's a witch," Amycus said, "says here she is and ... says here you're a Half-Blood ... which must makes your dad a Muggle."
Still Seamus said nothing, though in his head, he had already hexed Amycus all the way back to London.
"Filthy," Amycus mumbled, as he shoved the ticket back into Seamus's hand and closed their compartment door.
Seamus sat back down in his seat, his face flushed with anger
"Ignore him, Seamus" came Luna's dreamy voice
"Yeah mate," said Neville, "I don't like the idea that all our personal information's on the back, but since it's what the Ministry wants, it's what the Ministry gets."
"Boggin, he is" Seamus growled
Neville looked confused at the word 'boggin', so Dean clarified it for the blonde boy, "Irish slang. Means 'filthy' or 'repulsive', Neville"
Neville nodded in understanding.
The Hogwarts Express rode on, across the country and through the chilly weather. It was heading to a castle, high up in Scotland, a once beautiful place. Hogwarts.