"I'm decorating Harry. Have you got a problem with that?" she snapped.
"What's your problem," asked Ron.
"I, unlike you, have none," Hermione glared at them.
"You know, I think that we should leave. Herm's peeved, and I don't exactly want to be in her path," Harry murmured to Ron. Ron nodded in agreement. They went off to the boys dormitory, leaving Hermione in her flight of rage.
"OK, I want to know what you and Cho were doing last night," Ron said as he sat down on his bed.
"It was great," Harry smiled. "She's so beautiful. And she's really nice."
"I asked what you were doing, not how she was," Ron grinned. "But that would have been my next question."
"We went for a walk outside." Harry answered.
"Are you guys a couple? Did you , uh, you know…?" Ron asked with a sly grin.
Harry hit him with a pillow. "No, we're not a couple and no, I didn't kiss her."
"You're such a gentleman Harry," Ron laughed. "You really like her, don't you?"
"I don't know. I mean I like her, I like her a lot, but I don't love her. You know what I mean?" he inquired.
"Kind of," Ron answered. "Well, you're fourteen Harry. You don't have to have a soulmate or anything yet. It's not like you're getting married anytime soon."
"I know," Harry sighed. He decided to change the subject. "What's the matter with Hermione?"
"We all were going to study last night, remember? You totally blew us off," Ron said.
"Oh my god! I completely forgot! I'm so sorry Ron!" Harry apologized.
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. I understand. Hermione's the one who had everything planned, and you know how she feels about Cho. It's like you blew her off for her worst enemy."
"They don't hate each other that much, Ron." Harry sighed.
"Well, they certainly didn't get along at your last Quidditch match. I really thought they were going to kill each other," Ron laughed.
"This isn't funny Ron!" Harry cried.
"Well, go talk to her now. I think she's calmed down. I mean, Hermione's pretty reasonable, right?" At that minute they heard a loud crash from the common room.
"Hermione!" a voice cried.
"Well, you were in my way Ginny. You need to move," they heard Hermione snap.
"I've never seen her like this!" Ron exclaimed. "Maybe you should wait to talk to her."
"I think I'll go now before she kills someone." Harry said. With that he walked down to the Gryffindor common room. It was pretty empty, except for a few first years. Hermione was sitting in her chair near the fire, doing homework. "Hermione, I'm really sorry about last night," he said.
"Where you with her?" she asked crossly.
"If you mean Cho, yes I was," he answered.
"Than I have nothing to say to you. If you want to go off with that little ho I'm not going to stop you. But I think you could do a lot better than her Harry." She said. She put down her books and looked him in the eye.
"What exactly do you not like about her?" Harry asked.
"Oh, she's a shameless flirt. You should have seen her last night. She looked like such an idiot last night." Hermione suppressed a giggle. "And she was really a jerk at the match on Saturday."
"What did she do to you?"
"Well, she was calling me a bossy know-it all."
"Ron and I call you that all the time." Harry smiled.
"But it was different. You guys are my friends, and you don't mean it to be mean or anything. But she hardly knew me and she was saying all this stuff. She was really rude," Hermione sniffed.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" Harry asked.
"Harry, I can handle jerks like Cho. I just don't think you can. I mean, she's got you feeding out of her hand."
Harry smiled and rolled his eyes. "I like her, OK? I mean I really like her. Please try to get along with her, please?"
"Oh, all right. I'll try. I'm not promising anything, but I'll try." Hermione agreed. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"We're having a millennium feast New Year's Eve. And guess who is in charge of it?"
"You?"
"Yep! I'm the head student organizer person. Would you like to be on my staff?" she asked.
"Sure!" Harry said, excited.
"But no Cho, OK? I mean, I don't want you guys to be looking at each other all moony eyed. Agreed?" Harry nodded. "Oh, this is going to be so great! We need to decorate, pick food, and everything."
"Slow down, Herm. Breathe," Harry said, making Hermione laugh. They both started laughing hysterically.
* * *
The next week went by really slowly. They had had four tests, and one extremely hard pop quiz, a gift from Snape. Between Quidditch practice, millennium feast staff meetings, school work, and walks with Cho, Harry was starting to feel overwhelmed. He hardly even noticed how down Hermione was looking. He just assumed that she wasn't sleeping well.
"Who wants to volunteer? Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked the class.
"Huh?" Hermione wasn't listening. The class looked at her in shock. Hermione Granger, not paying attention? Maybe the new millennium was the end of the world. Professor McGonagall walked to Hermione's seat and placed her hand on Hermione's forehead.
"Are you feeling ill, dear?" McGonagall asked Hermione. She had a right to be concerned. Hermione had never ever stopped paying attention in her classroom. "You are a bit warm."
"I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm sorry, Professor. It won't happen again," Hermione apologized.
"I hope not," McGonagall said. She must have been in shock. If Hermione starts daydreaming, what is the world coming to?
* * *
He was on a walk with Cho one day when it started snowing. "Isn't it pretty, Harry. It looks like a snow globe." She smiled at him. He agreed. Suddenly he looked at his watch. He had missed a millennium staff meeting! He said goodbye to Cho and ran to the common room to find Hermione.
She was sitting in her chair, facing the fire. "Hermione, I'm so sorry." He apologized.
"Why weren't you there?" she whispered. She looked at Harry and he realized she was crying.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Everyone got really mad at me. Even Ron yelled at me and called me a baby when I started crying. They wouldn't listen to me the entire meeting. Why weren't you there? They would have listened to you."
"I was with…" Harry began.
"Cho. I thought so," Hermione said.
"Are you going to be OK?" Harry asked.
"Yes. Go to bed." She ordered, and Harry walked off to his dormitory. What was up with her?
"Hermione," a voice called out. Ginny was walking toward her. "Are you mad at Harry for being with Cho? Are you jealous? Do you like him?"
"No way!" she cried. "Maybe I'm a little jealous, but I don't like him. He's just ignoring me."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Harry ignores me all the time. I'm like a disease. But I do like him. I wish more than anything that I was in your position, that I could at least be his friend." Ginny said.
"Ginny, you're like obsessive. And you never talk to him. No wonder why he ignores you." Hermione snapped.
"Oh that's nice, Hermione."
"I'm sorry, Ginny. I'm just not in the mood to use any tact." Hermione sighed.
"It's ok. I actually like him less than when I did when I was littler. You know, he was like the famous wonderful Quidditch star Harry Potter then, but now he's more just plain Harry Potter now than anything else. It's like my crush is kind of getting smaller."
"That's good." Hermione smiled.
"Personally, Hermione, I think you are jealous because you think that Cho is going to replace you, you are mad at him because he's replacing you, and you do like him, even if you don't realize it." With that, Ginny walked off to the girl's dormitory, leaving Hermione alone in the common room to think. She so did not like Harry. This kind of proved her thoughts on Ginny. The girl is not right in her head, Hermione thought to herself as she headed off to bed.
* * *
IT was December 28th. Three days before the Millennium feast. Hermione and her 'staff' where quickly running around, making last minute preparations. This was going to be a large party; even people who went away for Christmas where coming back for the feast. The great room was completely a silver color. They had voted that silver and blue were the two most millennium colors. They had gotten silver table cloths and a big silver countdown screen to put on the wall. The excitement for the new millennium was quickly spreading. Everyone was really cheerful.
Except Hermione. Cho and Harry had been spending even more time together, and Hermione was jealous. Extremely jealous. They were officially a 'couple' now, and spent all day with each other. Harry only pulled himself away from her to help with the millennium feast. Cho and Hermione weren't fighting, but you could defiantly sense the cold tension between them. Hermione could really feel Harry pulling away from her. She wondered if Ron felt the same way.
"What do you think of Cho and Harry," she asked Ron.
"I think it's OK. I mean, Harry's so happy." Ron answered.
"You don't feel jealous at all, do you?"
"Well, I wish I had a girlfriend, if that's what you mean," He answered. "You aren't jealous, are you? Of all the time Harry spends with Cho?" He eyed her suspiciously.
"No, oh no! No way! I just think he could do better, that's all," she lied quickly.
"It's just that you seem a little edgy lately." Ron said.
"It's the millennium feast. It's so much work," she answered quickly.
"Well, I think our drill captain is doing a great job," he teased. She smiled. "If I had a girlfriend, would you be jealous of her too?" Ron asked.
"I'm not jealous of Cho," Hermione said.
"Oh come off it Hermione. It's pretty obvious. Would you be?"
"Of course, Ron. Goodness, I don't know what I'd do if both of you had girlfriends. I'd think I'd kill myself," Hermione joked.
"Unless you had a boyfriend," Ron said. He grinned and raised his eyebrows. Hermione sighed and hit him playfully. They started to walk back to the common room when Ron put his arm around her. Hermione was shocked. Ron had never ever touched her before.
"What's that for?" she asked, pointing to his arm.
"Don't get hurt Herm. Seriously, I don't want to see you get hurt." Ron told her very sternly. As they walked back to the common room she tried to work out what he said, but it didn't make sense.
* * *
It was the day of the feast. That morning Hermione had put the finishing touches on the great hall. She stood in her dormitory, getting ready. She had chosen the outfit she was going to where a long time ago, a knee length silver dress. "You want to borrow some of my silver eye shadow?" Lavender Brown asked her.
"I'm not a big makeup person," Hermione admitted.
"Well, here, let me put some on you. It'll match your dress," she argued. Hermione nodded in agreement. She shut her eyes and felt Lavender put something over her eyes. Then she felt a tickling sensation on her cheeks. "There!" Lavender cried. Hermione looked in the mirror. It did look good.
"Thanks," Hermione said.
"No problem," Lavender smiled. "I love putting makeup on other people. It's weird." Lavender left. OK, Hermione thought with a smile, that girl is nuts too. She looked at herself one more time in the mirror and left for the party.
* * *
Harry sat on his bed, looking at Ron as he got dressed. "It feels so weird to be in muggle clothes," Ron said, and Harry agreed. It did feel odd. "Is Cho coming?" Ron asked.
"Of course. That was a stupid question. Everyone's coming." Harry answered.
"I know," Ron said. "Are you excited?"
"About what?" Harry asked.
"The new millennium. Y2K. It's weird. You know, our grandchildren are going to look at us and think, 'they must be old. They were born in the last millennium.'"
Harry shuddered. "Yeah. They're going to classify this century, like we do with things that happened in the 1800's. I mean, look how far we've come since 1900. They're going to see us living like that."
"Yeah. Well we need to go. Hermione will kill us if we're late," Ron said. The two boys walked out of the dormitory and towards the great hall.
* * *
The great hall looked wonderful. Hermione saw Harry and Ron enter and ran up to them. "Hey guys! Doesn't it look great!" she asked pointed to the room around them.
"You look nice," Harry commented.
"Hermione, you're wearing makeup! I think the world is going to die of shock! First daydreaming in class, and now this!" Ron cried sarcastically.
She hit him playfully. "It was Lavender's," she admitted.
"Hey, Harry, there's your girl." Ron said, pointing at Cho coming toward them. She did look pretty. She was wearing a light blue pantsuit with her black hair perfectly framing her face.
"Hey Ron, Ginny, hello Hermione," she added coldly.
"Let's sit down here," Harry suggested. He and Cho sat next to each other, with Hermione sitting across from them with Ron and Ginny on either side of her. Cho instantly started flirting with Harry. Ugh, Hermione thought. If she does this anymore I am going to puke.
"Harry, you're so funny," Cho laughed, playfully touching Harry's arm. Hermione could instantly tell that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable.
"I really like your outfit Cho," Hermione said politely. She really did, and she wanted to take Cho's attention off Harry. Everyone at the table looked at her. Hermione was letting down her guard and being nice to the one person she hated as much as Malfoy.
"Thanks Hermione," Cho said with a smile. "I wish I could say the same for you. All that silver makes you look like the tin man!" Hermione felt like she had just been punched in the stomach. She felt like crying. Just then, she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Ginny.
"Can I see your pudding?" Ginny whispered. Hermione nodded. Ginny mixed her and Hermione's pudding together Ginny's pudding bowl. She then added some water, took our her wand and said "Redichanigekus!" The pudding turned bright red. Ginny then held a finger to her lips and left the table.
Hermione watched Ginny as she walked down to the end of the table and walked back, now on the same side as Harry and Cho. As she reached Cho, Ginny tripped herself. Bright red pudding landed all over Cho Chang. The bowl had landed on her head.
"You little…" Cho screamed at the top of her lugs. She then paused and seemed if she was catching herself from yelling on.
"I am so sorry Cho! I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!" Ginny cried. It was pretty obvious that she was lying.
"It's OK, it's OK," Cho said with a fake smile. "I'll just go to the bathroom and clean up." She turned and left, walking very quickly.
As soon as Cho was out of earshot Ginny busted out laughing. Hermione and Ron started too. "She'll never get that red out! That was brilliant, Ginny!" Ron laughed. Ginny stood and took a little bow. She was feeling very pleased with herself.
"Guys…" Harry started. "That was really mean."
"Well, what do you call what she said to me? I look like the tin man? If that's not mean I don't know what is?" Hermione said. Harry nodded in agreement and started to laughing with them. Soon the four where in hysterics. They calmed down when Cho came back, with a red stain on her clothes. She looked furious.
Hermione checked the clock. "Guys!" she screamed! "It's 11:59! We have one minute! Let's start counting soon!" Everyone stood up and walked to the front of the room, where the countdown clock was. Hermione walked in-between Harry and Ron. "Let's start counting! Thirty seconds!" she yelled.
"Twenty-nine!" the hall screamed, even the teachers.
"Twenty-eight!"
"Twenty-seven!"
"Twenty-six!"
"Twenty-five!"
"Twenty-four!"
"Twenty-three!"
"Twenty-two!"
"Twenty-one!"
"Twenty!"
As the countdown went on Hermione started thinking.
"Nineteen!"
What was the new millennium going to bring?
"Eighteen!"
Where was she going to do now?
"Seventeen!"
"Sixteen!"
"Fifteen!"
"Fourteen!"
She was only fourteen. Why did she have so many worries?
"Thirteen!"
Was she just a worrisome person.
"Twelve!"
"Eleven!"
"Ten!" the screaming got louder.
"Nine!"
"Eight!"
Hermione felt a little jump in her heart. Was this nervousness, or excitement, or a bit of both?
"Seven!"
Everything started to slow down and go in slow motion.
"Six!"
Hermione turned and looked at Ron and Ginny.
"Five!"
They had such excitement and hope on there faces.
"Four!"
Hermione turned towards Cho and Harry.
"Three!"
Cho actually looked genuinely excited.
"Two!"
Harry seemed to glow. He turned to her and she turned back towards the wall.
"One!"
The last second of the millennium. Goodbye 1999. Goodbye last two thousand years. I shall miss thee.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" everyone screamed at the top of their lungs. Excitement and chaos ran threw the room. Everyone started hugging each other. Hermione turned to Harry and felt his arms go around her waist in a hug.
"Happy New Year!" he shouted. He withdrew grinning. Then he turned to hug Cho. Hermione turned to hug Ron. As Ron embraced her Hermione realized that Harry had hugged her before he had hugged Cho. That fact made Hermione feel warm inside and important. She turned back to Harry. He smiled at her and hugged her again. She felt tears fall down her cheeks.
"What's wrong?" he asked when he saw her.
"Oh, nothing. I guess I'm just so happy!" she smiled. Harry leaned over to kiss her forehead. Just at that very moment, Hermione looked up at him. His kiss landed on her lips. They instantly pulled away as soon as they realized what happened, awkwardly. It was a weird situation. Hermione started laughing, and then Harry did too. It relieved the tension.
The rest of the night was a blur. She hugged almost everyone in the great hall. At about one o'clock in the morning the teachers started ushering the students back to their common rooms. There was no arguing with that, seeing that all the students were very tired.
"Are you ok Herm?" Ron asked.
"Oh yeah. I'm just really tired. I woke up really early this -no- yesterday morning, and now it's really late," Hermione yawned.
"I thought it might have been your little thing with Harry," Ron had a sly grin on his face.
"You saw that?" Hermione felt her face go red as Ginny's pudding.
"Don't worry, I know it was accidental. And I won't tell anyone," Ron said. He put his arm around her again and she laid her head on his shoulder. "Where is Harry, anyway?" Hermione shrugged. "Probably with Cho. You would have thought he had enough action today with you." Ron smiled. Hermione was too tired to hit him and let it go. "How come I didn't get a kiss?" he asked slyly.
"I don't kiss guys with red hair," she teased.
"Figures," Ron laughed.
* * *
The Gryffindors sat in the common room for awhile, then went off to their bedrooms. Hermione started to retreat when she heard Harry come in through the passage. She hid and listened to him and Ron talk.
"Where were you Mr. Harry Potter?" asked Ron. "Getting some action?"
"Cho and I kissed," Harry said. He smiled.
"Was that the first time you kissed her?" Ron asked.
"Yeah," Harry answered.
"Was that your first kiss?" Ron inquired. Harry shook his head. "Don't tell me you find that little peck with Hermione earlier a kiss."
"I think it was. I meant, it wasn't really, but I'd like to think I've kissed more than one girl." Harry grinned.
"You are such a player, Harry Potter!" Ron cried. "Let's go to bed. You must be tired. T wo girls in one night, what a busy boy." Harry turned a bright red and they walked to the boys dormitory and disappeared.
Hermione smiled. If it was a kiss for Harry, it was a kiss for her. Her first kiss. She still didn't like him though. He was too obnoxious. She checked her watch. It was only two o'clock. Well, if her first two hours of the millennium were this exciting and odd, she could only imagine what the next one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine years and twenty-two hours brought. It was a nice thought.
Authors Note: Hey! I hope you guys liked this story. I have a few points to make. First, I made Hermione very confused about who she likes. She's not sure if she likes Harry, and I added some nice little flirty moments with Ron to make her more unsure. Next, I apologize to the Cho fans. I'm sorry I made her a jerk. She's probably not one, but it would he very boring if she was nice. And lastly, I gave Ginny some personality. I was very bored watching her be the same whiny brat, so I gave her a little action and made her interesting. Please review and tell me what you think!
Harry, Hermione, Cho, Ron, Ginny, Professor McGonagall, Lavender, Malfoy and Professor Snape are all properties of J.K. Rowling, Scholastic and Bloomsbery. They do not belong to me, although I wish they did, but I'm not that special.