A few days later Lavender and I met in the library for a tutoring session. It was mostly paperwork at first, but later we moved onto the practical wand bit. It was turning an animal into its prey, so we went to the owlery to fetch one of the school owls. We took it outside by the moat.
"No," I had to say, "You want to grip the wand more and it's more of a backwards flick." One of her gorgeous slender fingers was extended on the chestnut-coloured wand. I placed my hand on top of hers and flicked the wand with what I hoped was authority.
"God your hands are cold, 'Mione," Lavender
"Yeah I know, they always are," I placed my hands at the base of my head and held my neck for warmth. When I removed them from my neck, Lavender stuck her wand in her back pocket and took my hands in hers and squeezed them together.
……….
On the way to something like our twelfth tutoring session (this one was in the Transfiguration classroom, not the library), I walked down the corridors. Harry and Ron were up ahead. I suppose I must have been possessed by Rita Skeeter at that moment, because I got the sense I should eavesdrop.
"I've decided she out right can't keep a relationship, mate. Parvati looked so bloody angry, worse than I took it even. I thought she was going to hex Lavender on the spot," Ron shook his head.
"Guess I'm lucky with Ginny."
"Well, you were already lucky, I mean—The Boy Who Lived. Twice." Ron's voice had a sense of awe where resentment used to be.
"Sure, but I know I'll never have to worry about Gin leaving me. Especially for another girl," Harry said with confidence.
"Merlin's pants Harry, she's my sister!" Ron was disgusted.
If they only knew. I turned down another hall and took a staircase to a spare classroom we were meeting in because it was too cold outside to work. Huh. So Lavender and Parvati had broken up.
When I entered the classroom I sat at a spare desk and tried to look nonchalant while waiting for her. Then I heard a sniff that made me jump.
She was sitting against the wall a ways behind me. She looked up: "Oh hi 'Mione, I'm sorry but I really don't feel like studying today. I've had an awful time with Parvati…we broke up."
I moved to sit beside her and tilted myself toward her. Her mascara was smeared, and although I could clean the marks away with a spell, I ran one thumb under one eye, then the other thumb under the opposite one.
She began to rant on and on about the break up. "I really thought things would work out with Parvati, I really liked her. But she's always working and I hate that we can't spend as much time together as I want. And she's my best friend, I want her as that too. But sometimes she seems a little too much like she just wants to be that. Maybe we're too much of the same person to be a couple, maybe we should just be friends, I don't know." I helped her up.
"Yeah, it's not easy," I said, being able to relate a little of that to Ginny. "I'm sorry." I wanted to…could I? Bring myself to kiss her on the head? It was a dumb little thing that loads of perfectly straight girls did all the time, it wasn't professing my feelings or anything.
But it was awkward because I did have feelings, it would mean something. Mentally performing a banishing spell on any awkwardness, I hugged her. It was more of a squeeze, but that doesn't sound emotional, so let's go with embrace. God, this was worse than me agonizing on a word choice in most essays. It was so tight, so secure, and I could feel how much she needed it from the way she hugged back. I nestled in the crook of her neck and pulled my head back slightly so I could kiss her lightly right above her ear. As I pulled my head back my lips lightly brushed her neck, in a way that was just barely sensual….it wasn't like I kissed her neck.
I felt her pull her arms away first and I withdrew too, disappointed that she let go first.
But then she stunned me more than the strongest stunning spell in the world.
She put her finger under my chin and tilted my chin up slightly. It wasn't abrupt or anything, but it seemed to happen so fast that I wasn't aware of it until her sweet, full lips were pressed into mine.
And then she pulled back again, "I shouldn't be kissing someone so soon after breaking up with Parvati." No, please don't be another Ron. Shit.
"But dammit Hermione, I really feel like we connect somehow. Can we maybe see where this goes?" Absolutely. I nodded.
Just then the door of the classroom opened, and it was Ron.
"Hi Hermione. Oy, Lav, sorry about the breakup. That's got to be difficult," he
She offered him what I took to be an appreciative sort of smile. Then she glanced at me and glanced at him with an awkward sort of look and said, "Yeah, well, I just told Hermione and she was a massive help. I think I'm gonna go talk a walk now, but I'll be fine. See you both later." As she left Ron's back was to her, and she flashed me one of those smiles where her teeth almost glinted with a little spark in the corner, like the cartoon characters I watched when I was little.