The Cheater
Chapter Three

I made my way downstairs at four in the morning, Hermione following in my wake. It took quite a while to convince her, from sending charmed paper planes to wake her up and come downstairs to talk to me, to convince her that the pat on the ass was just an accident and I was trying to reach for a butterbeer when I did it. She didn't believe me but she bought the excuse, because we are friends and all. "So anyways when I train I train hard, you know what I mean Hermione?"

"I'm not sure I follow," she said, dressed in a sexy outfit made for joggers. Probably high designer muggle clothes. Her parents are dentists after all and she probably had tons of good clothes, unlike me. I was wearing a baggy gray tee shirt and a pair of green shorts which reached my knees. I used a charm to tighten up the waist line, but overall I looked like a bum.

"Well I need to train for the tournement and not get killed, I figure my best bet is physical fitness. I can dodge like the wind, which will give me a huge advantage over my competitors and you are here to help me do that."

"First we run," I said when we reached outside, by the lake. "We run until we can't run anymore, until we are totally exhausted."

I was just making this up as I went along. I had taken a pepper up potion before we left, but Hermione didn't know that. I wanted to impress her after all, or else how was I supposed to see what knickers her parents bought her?

We started to run, it was quiet and relaxing and I settled into a slow pace. The pepper up potion left me bulging with energy and vitality while Hermione looked like she wanted to die, her face red and panting. But she tried to keep up to me anyways, maybe out of a sense of pride.

I know a few things about life, well, that and a few things about women too, or that is, whatever Sirius told me. He suggested I should get her tired from all the physical activity, then talk some romantic stuff to her and get a kiss. "It's easier than plucking an apple from a tree," Sirius proclaimed in our fire conversation last night.

So anyways we ran and ran, panting like horses and I got tired too. After an hour of running I was feeling pretty good and getting my second wind when Hermione said, "Okay I can't take this anymore. I"m too tired." She sighed and fell to the ground, sitting and watching the ripples on the lake. It was peaceful in the morning. I sat down beside her in the silence, just let the silence linger and let the beauty of the lake take her away. The only thing I could think of was her body, her sexy body with her beautiful curly hair running down her sweaty face and her skin tight designer clothes clinging to some very well developed regions of her body.

I put my arm on her shoulder, "Is this okay?" I asked her. She nodded and we sat a minute or two in silence for a little while, until I decided to make a move. But she got to me first, turning and asking, "Are you scared you are going to die in the tournement?"

It took me totally by surprise like a thunderbolt. I looked at her in confusion for a few moments and then chuckled to hide my nervousness. "Hermione, I've faced death before, haven't I?"

"Yes, but you must be scared, you must be terribly frightened. I mean, that's the only logical thing I can think of for what you did the other day. You are acting out of biological impulses. I read somewhere that-"

This was it, the perfect moment, her soft cherry red lips perking up as she began to explain something I had no interest in. I just mulled through, put my lips over hers and kissed. She moaned slightly in surprise and began to pull back but I grabbed her forward and deepened the kiss with all my heart. She let go, relaxing in my arms and we kissed and kissed in the morning, as the sun rose over the lake casting a wierd orange glow to the clouds and casting a happiness that filled me, rising from the belly and spreading all over my body. I rubbed my hands around Hermione's back as we kissed even more intensely than before. Perhaps her own fears started acting as well, her own insecurities and worries, and she kissed harder than ever. It was so passionate I was lost for a few moments in utter bliss and pleasure but suddenly she pulled back pushing me away.

"Hermione!" I called as she got up and turned away. "Wait!"

She started to run. I ran after her, thanking the heavens for the pepper up potion still in my system. Easily catching up to her I grabbed her by the shoulders. She yelped and said, "Harry, no!" I tripped over something on the ground and we both fell, crashing into each other's arms, laying there on the banks of the lake, looking deeply into each other's eyes.

Something happened. A spark of lightning ignited in her eyes and I knew something similar happened to me. This time our kiss was tender, less sure, more fickle. We were simply experimenting as young folk were bound to, and in this experiment, in this haze of pleasure, I completely forgot about the tournemment, about the death eaters at the world cup, about all the problems in the world, and I used her, I used my best friend as a tool to help me forget this, as a drug.

It was the beginning of an exciting teenage romance. When we left the lake, hand in hand, talking softly yet meaningfully, talking from the heart, not from the head, it seemed as if I were in heaven at last. My best friend no more, but now my girl friend instead.

At that moment I loved her, utterly and totally. I had not known much love in my life, the Dursleys never showered their affection to me but here I was, utterly in love wth a girl I knew everything about and I knew that it was the same with her. She loved me too. I could see it in the tender way she looked at me, the skirting glances as if this would turn out to be a dream or a joke. But it was no joke, we both realized.

When we came back to Hogwarts, hand still in hand, I turned to her and said, "Ron needs to know."

"No, we can't tell him, you know how he gets about-"

I shushed her by planting a light kiss on her lips. "We need to tell him, he's my best friend and he's your best friend too. We can't do this behind his back."

She sighed, and all her energy seemed to depart. "Okay, fine, we'll tell him. But later, okay? After dinner?"

I nodded and with that, it seemed the magical moment departed. She pulled her hand away from mine and fled to tower while I went to the kitchens to eat a scrumptious meal.

While eating all I could think about was Hermione, and the kisses we shared, and the love we beheld for each other. It was bound to end in disaster. All things in life end in disaster, in my experience, but I was so taken with her that I didn't want it to end. In a way I was glad for the tournament, because it gave me a chance to see and experience what I had only dreamt about before.

-----

I was deep in my training. It was early afternoon and I hadn't been to any of my classes that day. I was intensely studying from the book of a 1001 curses, just one after the other. Sweat dripped down my face and I was panting, out of breath as I perfected spell after spell of destructive curses in an abandoned classroom in the dungeons where I was sure nobody would find me.

But then as it turned out, my worst enemy - or rather my worst annoyance walked in the door with Daphne in his arms. Draco Malfoy, ever smug, ever sneering, glanced in my direction with utter distaste. I turned to him, too tired to play one of his word games of insulting each other and just waited for him to leave.

He didn't leave. "So what do we have here, Little Potty planning a funeral?"

I didn't say anything. His ears tinged pink after thirty seconds of intense silence. "It's not like you're going to win the tournament. At the best you'll get mauled by the dragons."

"Dragons?"

"Oh didn't you know?" I did know but I wanted to see what Draco knew. I wanted to get some clues, some information. Anything that I could file away, that I could use.

"Daphne, why the hell are you with this loser? You know I can wipe the floor with him in a duel."

Daphne, prettiest girl in slytherin, with long blonde hair tied up in a pony tail and a form to die for. If she played as a seeker she would have given me a run for my money. Instead Draco got picked over her, even though I heard she had more talent.

"Oh really, Potty, wipe the floor you say? Well why don't we test those brave words right now?" Draco demanded, confident in an easy victory. He probably got the training from his father or something. I needed a duelling partner, and Draco could count, why not. I can use him as a test, see if my skills were up to par. No hint of fear existed in me. If I could survive Voldemort and live the life I had led, surrounded by danger at all corners, a little duel with Draco shouldn't be of any trouble whatsoever.

"You know how to duel, Potty? First we bow." Draco said. Daphne stepped away, her eyes alit in amusement. I got the strangest idea, if I banged her, how much would it get in Draco's nerves? How much would it annoy him and insult him. It was the worst insult, to bang someone's girlfriend. And if I could do that to Draco, it would be worthy of my strongest patronus charm yet.

What about Hermione, a small part of me whispered.

Then the slytherin part, the little part of me that almost got me sorted into the house of snakes said, it doesn't matter if she doesn't know.

And the first step to banging Daphne? Wipe the floor with Draco.

"Okay, Draco, let's do this."

We bowed to each other, and wands out we circled each other. He started first with an opening, "Expelliarmus," which I easily batted aside. "Lojiar!" I snarled, letting loose a revolting bolt of red light that Draco barely dodged. It landed on a chair, and the chair burst into eeiree flames which Daphne hastily put out. Draco's eyes widened and he stepped back, no doubt slightly afraid of my new repertoire.

"It's a duel, Draco, you can't back out now, you little shit faced coward," I said.

Draco smirked, and suddenly he whipped his wand and said, "Husaty!" A brilliant blue streak of lightning shot out of his wand toward me. I ducked under it and felt it singe my hair slightly as it passed overhead, crashing into the wall and making a huge scorch mark. That would have burnt my face off.

"So we're getting nasty now, are we," I said.

The duel had begin. To the victor the spoils.

I couldn't wait to bang Daphne.