Hello lovelies,
Hope you like this next chapter, it's nothing but Harmony and Sev interaction, something that's not yet been seen in this verse, well not when they've got the full ability of speech and enough teenage hormones to throw a rock at from space, any way.
I've also just realised that I haven't put a single disclaimer on this verse any where, so here goes, Ahem...
I, Michelle being of sound mind and body do hereby bequeath.. nope that the wrongs one lets try again.
disclaimer:
All characters excepting any original characters are the sole property of J K Rowling and her various subsidiaries, I make no profit from this work, and it's only for the enjoyment of myself and my readers.
There I think that might do the trick. (^^)
well now that the legal stuffs out the way lets get on with the fic.
Enjoy !
As much as Harmony loved Hogwarts, she couldn't help but feel that there had to be a better ways of lighting a magic school at night, other than a few random torches or sconces on the walls.
Everything was so heavily shadowed, it made the normally safe feeling corridors feel really quite creepy.
Not only that, you could never really see who might be lurking in the various alcoves, or further along the corridor; simply because they were both eclipsed by the never ending gloom.
She'd been hexed more than once by Pucey or Malfoy, in these lower corridors, where natural light rarely reached.
They usually managed to get the drop on her, simply because they were hiding in plain sight. The shadows were so thick that it made anyone hiding in the alcoves invisible to anyone walking past.
Not that their victories ever lasted long, she always got them back worse than they got her.
Harmony was so lost in her thoughts, thinking about if someone might be lurking in the shadows; that she failed to notice two things in the dank corridor.
The first was that she was about to trip over a flagstone that was jutting up at an odd angle, and the Second was that, there was someone else in the corridor with her, blending seamlessly in to the shadows and walking on near silent feet.
They weren't trying to hex her though or even hide from her, the person was actually heading straight for her.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because just as the person started to become fully visible through the dimness, Harmony caught her foot on the aforementioned flag stone and started to tumble.
She would've surely smacked her chin on the flagstones, if it wasn't for a pair of long fingered pale hands suddenly clasping her upper arms.
She didn't need to look up to know who those fingers belonged too.
They'd starred in quite a few of her dreams as of late... and she needed to stop that thought right now.
Just before she started to turn post box red from her.. ahem.. thoughts. A low velvet drawl broke through them, which didn't help the thoughts any; but did remind her she needed to concentrate.
"Miss potter, what may I ask are you doing loitering around the lower corridors at this time of night".
Harmony thoughts halted and she rolled her eye's at her friend, boyfriend, friend, whatever he currently was.
Severus was obviously in prefect mode at the moment.
Not that she minded, she could have some fun with this.
Her eyes glittered at Severus in the torch light, while her tongue poked out from between her teeth slightly, a cheeky smile touching the corners of her mouth.
"Oh you know, just randomly charming suits of armour, ransacking the teachers quarters, snogging random boys. You know, really extreme levels of mischief. You might just have to take me with you and give me detention, mister perfect prefect".
Severus merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her, his face remaining as stoic as ever and giving a way nothing of his thoughts.
Harmony huffed.
Clearly the boy wasn't in a playful mood tonight.
Then again when was he ever really, if she didn't force it out of him.
"Fine, if you must know I've been in my parents chambers. I had something to discuss with mum about the ball".
Severus would still look stoic to any one that didn't know him well, but Harmony could clearly see that he'd become curious at her statement. Before she could ask why (after all it wasn't unusual for her to visit her parents); he was reaching a hand out towards her face.
For one heart stopping moment, she thought he might be about to grasp her chin and kiss her, but that moment was short lived.
His hand slid straight past her face and grasped something in her hair instead.
Harmony had to roll her eyes internally, of course he wasn't about to kiss her. He'd done nothing even remotely boyfriendly since he'd asked her to the ball as his actual date.
More than ten days and the only thing he'd done, that could be even remotely construed as an action of some one who's more than a friend, is that he'd unexpectedly grabbed her hand when they'd been walking down the charms corridor last Tuesday.
Which was not something she counted, since frankly speaking he'd only grabbed her hand in the first place because he'd had to pull her out of the way of some stampeding Hufflepuffs.
You'd have thought that her saying yes to being his actual date, might've made him a little more forward, (Parvati and Lavender certainly seemed to think it should), but he seemed determined to keep them as far inside the, 'just friends' zone as he could reasonably get away with.
What he was waiting for, she really wasn't sure. She'd given him endless signals, but nothing seemed to be working.
May be she just wasn't attractive enough?.
Her thoughts refocused on the present, as his hand came back in to view. She could just see the small white feather he was grasping between his thumb and forefinger.
"Are you sure you've been visiting Professor Evans?. It looks more like you've been fighting with Hagrid's chickens; or trying to turn yourself in to one. Sitting on that golden egg of yours won't give you any answers you know".
Harmony felt an indignant retort on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped it at the last second.
Through the gloom she could just make out the slight flicker of a smile dancing around the dour boys thin lips and a rare sparkle of mischief in his dark glittering eyes.
Her earlier assumption had obviously been wrong, Severus was apparently up for being playful after all, even if it was in his own slightly dry manner.
No one would believe me if I told them .
"Har, bloody har, I haven't been trying to hatch my golden egg or fight Hagrid's chickens, thank you very much. My mum said something and it dissolved in to a pillow fight. Simple as that".
"Hmm, a likely story I'm sure Miss Potter".
Severus's eyes were still glittering at her as he said this, but he'd schooled his features to his normal stoicism, putting the perfect prefect routine on once more.
Harmony didn't mind to much.
Honestly this felt like the closest she was likely get to outright flirting with the boy, and frankly she was desperate enough to grasp at it with both hands and savour it.
Harmony could feel his eyes assessing her and felt drawn to the gaze; before a thought came barging in to her head with all the finesse of a heard of elephants.
She shouldn't be able to be pseudo flirting with him at all, she shouldn't even have been able to trip in to him as she had,, because he shouldn't even be down here, not yet anyway.
Prefects rounds didn't start for another thirty minutes at least; and students weren't allowed near the teachers chambers unless they were on patrol.
Harmony new this first hand, the rule had caused her all sorts of problems when she's tried to visit her parents as a first year.
The prefects kept giving her detention for being in a staff only area, they didn't seem to want to grasp the fact that she was well with in her right to be there since her parents were both members of staff.
Harmony eyed Severus suspiciously.
"What are you doing down here anyway?, Rounds don't start for a while yet; so there's no need for you to be this close to the staff chambers".
"I am down here Miss Potter, because I am endeavouring to look for trouble and mischief. The darkness gives students the bravery to try getting up to all sorts, I need to be here to stop the dunderheads having to much unsolicited fun".
Harmony rolled her eyes so hard this time she felt them almost wrench in their sockets.
Typical.
"I can never understand why they made you a prefect, you're such a hard arse. Since they gave you the power to deduct them, the points tallies have never been lower ".
Severus gave her a bland look remaining completely straight faced.
"They made me a prefect; because I'm good at ratting out miscreant little pre-pubescent cretins who have more hormones than sense".
Harmony shook her head good naturedly at him. He never seemed to remember that he was one of those cretins too.
"No wonder I'm one of your only friends Sev, well go on then. Go and find your miscreant dunderheads, I won't keep you from your fun. I've got to get back to Gryffindor tower any way. Hermione might just disembowel me, if I miss our study session".
As she went to brush past him, Severus's hand closed around her upper arm.
Clearly he didn't want to relinquish her attention quite yet. Harmony felt her self go a little gooey at that thought, and admonished herself for acting like such a.. girl.
This isn't one of your romance novels, stop acting like it is
piss off
"Well I did say I was looking for trouble and mischief too".
Severus's gaze swept over her from the top of her feathered head to the bottom of her ratty trainers.
Harmony felt herself squirm just a little under Severus's gaze and she wondered how lacking she must appear to him with her hair full of feathers and wearing a shirt three sizes to big.
"And I think you fit the bill quite well".
Harmony stopped wondering if she was coming up to snuff and let out an offended huff (she was doing that a lot tonight, why was everyone picking on her?).
Severus dropped his stoic look when she huffed and let a small grin overtake his features instead, though he was loath to admit it he found her offended face rather adorable under the right circumstances.
Harmony forgot to feel offended and instead, felt momentarily weak kneed at the sight of Severus's small grin.
For him it was the equivalent of a full blown dimpling smile, and she was only human after all.
"I think it would be in the schools best interests, if I were to escort you up to your tower".
He held out an arm for her to take. She gave him a contemplating look before happily latching on the his arm. It was almost a boyfriend type gesture.
So she'd take it while she could.
"I think you just want an excuse to give me a goodnight kiss".
well a girl can hope at least.
As the pair started down the corridor she noted that Severus had gone stiff shouldered at her comment. His usual shutters had come down over his eyes; and the playful grin? That was now nothing more than a brief memory to his lips.
What is so wrong with me, that the boy, I'm sort of, may be dating, doesn't want to kiss me?. I mean why ask me to the ball on a proper date at all, if he's not that interested? I was more than happy for us to go as friends; even if I do and did want more.
So why won't he kiss me.
May be he's thinks you won't be any good.
Fuck off.
As Severus walked Harmony towards the tower, he noticed that she'd lapsed in to a thoughtful, but slightly pensive silence.
She was unconsciously biting her lip, something that Severus had to block out; lest he do something stupid, like give her the goodnight kiss she'd joked about.
It wasn't that he didn't want to kiss her; by Salazar and Merlin he wanted to more than anything else.
But he was intensely worried; that once he did, she'd decide she didn't like his teeth or the way that he kissed or just didn't feel anything for him at all like that, and that they should go back to being Just friends, and that she'd realise that she'd only wanted to date him because she was caught up in the romance of the ball.
It didn't bare thinking about, It would kill him inside if that transpired, especially after having the possibility of more dangled so tantalising close.
He was more than aware that he'd have to give in to his urge and kiss her eventually. Harmony was (rightly) getting upset with his less than subtle rebuffs. As much as he feared what would happen when they did finally kiss, he hated seeing her hurt all the more.
(No matter how well she sometimes hid it).
He was resolved however, that he wouldn't give in and kiss her the way they both (hopefully) wanted; before the night of the ball.
Originally the plan had been to go as friends and he'd been content with that, even happy about. After all he'd wanted to use the ball as a stepping stone to ask her out on his own terms.
The thought being if she agreed once the ball was done, she really did want him and wasn't just getting caught up in some wild romantic notion.
But that plan had been thoroughly shot to hell.
Severus felt a scowl cross his face.
It'd all been that stupid ponce Diggory fault, he'd seen him hanging around Harmony one too may times lately; one to many for the git not to be interested in her.
Then last week Severus and Harmony had been sat at one of the library tables; he was studying, she was trying to get him to stop studying by throwing small paper balls at his head. Quite a normal day all things considered, then out of the corner of his eye, he'd seen Diggory seemingly having some sort of internal conflict in front of a nearby shelf before he'd headed towards their table with a look of resolve firmly etched on his face.
Severus had known what was about to transpire and saw his chance suddenly slipping through his fingers, why would Harmony want to date him if she was given the chance of some one like Diggory?. What else was Severus to do, but throw his original plan out of the window and ask Harmony to the ball there and then.
Severus would be damned if the glory seeking Hufflepuff fathead thought he would take his girl to the ball.
He'd seen Diggory come to a halt at his blurted proposal and Harmony had blinked at him a few times, before saying that she'd thought they were going to the ball together.
Severus had clarified that he was asking her as his actual date, Harmony's smile had been breath taking, and he'd watched Diggory slink off. He'd felt rather smug at the time.
And then the doubts that had already been circling in his head about asking her out returned full force, his belief set in, that doing any type of boyfriend (merlin he hated that word) type things, holding hands, cuddling, kissing. Any of it. Might be found lacking in some manner, and it might turn her off the thought of them as a couple before he got the chance to prove he could be all that she would ever need.
And he couldn't have that.
He was determined that the evenings special memories would belong to him and him alone. She was his dammit, whether she approved or not, in the end she'd been his for thirteen years and some upstart Hufflepuff with perfect white teeth wasn't going to take her from him.
So he came to the conclusion that he needed to refrain from any type of intimate contact with her to avoid falling at the last hurdle, he needed that ball to make sure she would never feel like she'd been given the short end of the stick by picking him.
This meant the kiss couldn't take place in some dark little corridor or out side some leering portrait of a fat woman.
He hadn't waited three years to ask her out, for his chance to end prematurely. After all It was likely to be his only chance.
Though it didn't bare thinking about If she ended up not wanting to remain as more, once he'd given her the best first kiss he could provide, then he'd let her go.
It'd hurt like hell; but he would let her go.
His future happiness depended on getting her to consent to remaining his, everything hinged on this kiss.
Severus was so caught in anxious thoughts of his own he didn't realise that they'd reached the portrait of the fat lady until he realised that Harmony was looking at him expectantly.
So expectantly that it hurt him some where deep inside.
Glancing in to her shining tsavorite eyes, he felt himself crumble, he couldn't deny her completely but he couldn't give her the kiss she wanted quite yet either.
Severus came to the conclusion that a brief kiss on her cheek wouldn't be enough the possibly send her running, but it might be enough to stop the inevitable hurt if he out right refused to kiss her good night the way she wanted.
Hoping that his plan was sound Severus leaned forwards and placed his thin chapped lips on her smooth cheek.
As soon as Severus did it he knew he'd made a mistake, it was the most intimate he'd ever been to Harmony and it sent his hormones in to overdrive.
His nose and his senses were filled with the scent of roses and lavender, he wanted to roll around in the smell, he wanted to clutch at it and never let it go. The urge to kiss her properly or put his lips against her throbbing pulse point became almost to much to bare.
He pulled himself back from her with difficulty, and came to the conclusion that now that he'd had that taste he was going to have to flat out avoid her if he wanted to get to the night of the ball without dragging her in to the nearest alcove and kissing her senseless.
He avoided her searching gaze and gave her (even by his standards) a slightly gruff goodnight and billowed off down the corridor; feeling more tension from that rather innocent kiss than any teenager had a right too.
Hopefully he could find some students breaking their curfew. They'd do nicely to take his frustrations out on.
Harmony watched bemused as her surly maybe, boyfriend billowed off down the hall.
His lips felt so nice against my cheek, I really hope I get to kiss them soon. May be I should just grab him unawares, drag him in to an alcove and snog the ever living daylights out of him.
Harmony sighed unhappily and climbed through the portrait feeling rather glum at the lack of a proper kiss goodnight.
She had at least two hours of tedious study notes ahead of her courtesy of Hermione. May be they'd take her mind off her surly possibly, maybe boyfriend and her apparent unkissability.
She doubted it though.
Let me know if you liked it or not, The next chapter should be up no later that Tuesday hopefully. If you see any spelling or grammar mistakes let me know and I'll get them fixed asap.
See you soon lovelies. (^^)