Stripped Bare- Chapter 1

Finding Out About Harry

Disclaimer- I own nothing of Harry Potter.

Author's Notes- I have recieved some flames that insult my grammar and how I indicate emphasis on words. I didn't know that there was a problem with my grammar, or that there was a specific way to emphasize anything, but there you go. So, if you are going to be that picky with my writing, you don't have to read it, that's all I'm saying.

Ron Weasley, hearing a soft pop from across the room, looked up from his television program and watched Harry drop the nylon bag he was holding on the floor and rush off to his room. Ron shrugged and returned to his show. Ten seconds later, he heard another pop and turned his head again. There stood Hermione, fuming on the Apparition spot. She glanced down at Harry's bag.

"Where is he?" she ground out. Ron, afraid his friend was soon to be fearing for his life, silently pointed towards the bedrooms. Hermione stormed down the hall and into Harry's room.

"Harry James Potter, how can you do this to me!"

"Merlin, Hermione, can't you knock?" Harry hurried to cover himself with the shirt he'd thrown over the end of his bed.

"Like I didn't just see everything already?" she retorted, slamming his bedroom door shut.

"It wasn't everything."

"Close enough!" Harry sighed and dropped his shirt, standing before her in his boxers.

"O.K. So now you know, but I don't understand how it really affects you?"

"I'm getting married in two days, that's how it affects me! Ginny, Maureen, Kailah and Andrea took me out tonight for my party."

"Yeah, I gathered that's what it was."

"They take me to this bar, and I have no idea what's going to happen, but the night's going along fine, I'm even having a lot of fun. Until..." She dropped down onto the edge of his bed and covered her face.

"Until you figured out that was me," Harry finished. Hermione nodded.

"Harry, you were naked!" she moaned into her palms.

"Not entirely," he argued. "I was still wearing..."

"I know you weren't totally naked, Harry!" she spat, dropping her hands and glowering up at him. "But when I realized it was you, I was so embarrassed!"

"Why? If you hadn't said anything, I probably wouldn't have known it was you. I didn't have my glasses on, remember?"

"Ginny would have known! I think she did from the second you came out!" She jumped up and began pacing. "She knew who you were, even though you weren't wearing your glasses, and you'd somehow covered your scar. It just wasn't until you were over by our table and I saw your eyes that I realized it."

"Hermione, you saw my whole body when you drank that Polyjuice potion back at the Dursleys'."

"Oh, no I didn't. I changed clothes and everything, but like I told you then, your vision is really bad, and I kept my eyes shut when I was putting on the underwear." Harry was taken aback. He'd believed for the last three years that she'd known everything about his body.

"You didn't look?" he asked. "Not at all?"

"No! I would never have been able to look you in the eyes if I had done. I mean, you're one of my best friends!" Harry stepped over in front of her and stopped her when she reached him.

"Hermione, I'm not doing this to embarrass you."

"Well, you certainly can't be hurting for money, Harry!" She tried to pull away from him to continue her pacing. He doubled his grip on her wrists.

"Come here, sit down." They sat on the bed, Hermione making sure that no part of her touched Harry when he released her hands. "I'm doing it to help me with my inhibitions."

"What?"

"My inhibitions. I thought that if I did something like this, I would be able to be more comfortable when I went on dates."

"But, Harry," Hermione stood and faced him again. "You're a stripper!"

"Exotic dancer. And all right, so maybe it wasn't the best decision, but it was all I could think of at the time." He reached back and picked up his shirt, looking at what was emblazoned across the front. Hermione stared at it as well, her face turning red when he caught her.

"You want this?" he asked, indicating the garment in his hands. He held it out to her questioningly, but she shook her head. "You sure? I can always get another, and I don't wear it outside the flat. I'm not going to advertise to the whole wizarding world that Harry Potter is a male dancer." He chuckled, but stopped abruptly when he saw the fury in Hermione's brown eyes.

"Harry, that's just it. Someone from my table might decide to tell Stephen. He's already not too happy about the fact that I didn't want to move in with him until after the wedding, that I chose to stay here with you and Ron instead. He probably thinks that there's more going on than the three of us sharing this flat."

"He didn't seem too fussed about it to me."

"What do you mean?"

"About you not wanting to move in with him, that's what I mean. He looked relieved to tell you the truth."

"He did not!" Hermione put one hand on her hip, pointing the index finger of the other in Harry's face.

"You don't have the slightest idea what was going through his head, so don't even beginto tell me that you do!"

"I didn't say I knew what he was thinking, just that he didn't seem to be all that upset about you not wanting to move in with him," said Harry, a defiant gleam in his emerald eyes. He shook out the shirt again and started to fold it. Hermione yanked it out of his hands.

"I'll have you know, Harry James Potter, he was only putting up a front. He told me that evening that he was extremely hurt by my decision. He spent the next hour trying to change my mind." She flounced over to his desk chair and sat down, crossing her arms.

"Only an hour?" asked Harry. "Not much of a fighter, is he?"

"I'll have you know that he only gave up because we... Oohhh, never mind!" She blushed faintly at what she'd almost revealed. She stood and walked to the door. "Well, the day after tomorrow, you won't have to worry about what I think of your new occupation, or how much of a fighter Stephen is anymore, because he and I will be married, and I'll be out of here. Then you'll be free to do what you want to do." She opened the door and headed to her own bedroom.

"You're welcome for the shirt!" Harry called after her. She noticed as she passed Ron, who was on his way to the bathroom and looked at her curiously at Harry's words, that she was still holding onto it. She hurried into her room and closed the door to avoid any questions. Leaning against her door, she turned on the light and sighed, then opened the shirt and stared at the picture of Harry grinning back at her from the group picture splashed across the front.

She smiled down at it, remembering how Harry had looked as he'd danced around the room, going from fully dressed as a doctor to the almost non- exsistant g-string he'd been in towards the end of his dance when he'd come over to her table and had proceeded to lavish his attentions on Kailah.

Her smile widened as she thought of the look of surprise that had flashed over his handsome face when she'd said his name. She stepped away from the door and walked across the room, almost unconsciously bringing the shirt up to her nose, breathing in the scent of the cologne Harry had been wearing for his dance as she lay down on her bed.

Hermione closed her eyes as she thought of him in that tiny little scrap of fabric and about what a fabulous bum he had, and soon her dreams were filled with his dance, this time for only her eyes.