I have absolutely no excuse for letting it go this long between updates. None! All I can do is humbly offer this chapter and hope it begins to make up for it.
Also: Earphones has over 100 reviews!!1! OMG you guys, I never expected it to even come this far, much less get this much of a response. My plotless little crack!fic, it does not deserve it! You guys are awesome. (tears up)
9. In Which Snape Interrupts
After the incident in the bathroom, Ginny thought she had Hermione figured out. She covertly studied Hermione's face as the older girl pored over her books. It looked like the face of a girl who was engaged in an inner struggle with her feelings for her best friend (female). Well, no, right now it looked like the face of a girl who was engaged in an inner struggle with her Muggle Studies research, but just a moment ago, when she had looked up at Ginny and blushed when she saw Ginny was looking back, she had had The Look.
Ginny knew it well.
And if Ginny was right about Hermione needing more 'evidence' to base her feelings on, she was doing all she could to speed the process along. This evening, for instance, she had accompanied Hermione to the library for her research session, telling Hermione (truthfully) that she'd rather spend her Friday evening with Hermione than anywhere else - even if it did mean four solid hours of homework.
The fourth hour was already over and they were well into the fifth, but Ginny was determined to stay until Hermione left. It wasn't like she minded; watching Hermione study was a treat in itself. But she hadn't had a chance to do much else, and that was beginning to get tiresome. The paltry Muggle Studies section was situated in a direct line of sight from Madam Pince's desk, and Ginny hadn't dared to do so much as speak above a whisper the entire evening. The walk back to Gryffindor tower, alone with Hermione – and, if she stayed until the library closed like she seemed to be planning to do - after curfew, in deserted hallways, was looking ever more attractive.
From the increasing frequency of weighing glances Hermione was sending her way, Ginny guessed that she was thinking along the same lines.
At long last, the closing bell sounded. The late-night denizens emptied out of the library, burdened with bulging stacks of books in their arms and the wizened librarian's glare on their backs. The other students, thankfully all Ravenclaws, turned down a side corridor shortly after exiting the library, leaving Ginny and Hermione finally, blissfully, alone.
They walked along in silence for a while, giggling when they successfully navigated a particularly tricky moving staircase. A couple of times Hermione opened her mouth as if to speak and then closed it again, pressing her lips between her teeth as if the words would struggle to get out. Ginny, intensely curious about this display, held her tongue and hoped that it wasn't too much to hope that this time be like the last time.
"You know," Hermione started in a carefully calculating tone, "That book you held hostage..."
"What about it?" Ginny liked the direction this was taking already. Somehow she doubted that Hermione would bring up the book only to segue into some more mundane subject.
"Well, it caused me a lot of pain and suffering to find it gone. Transfigurations is my first class of the day, you know. And then there's all the time I wasted looking for it."
"I'm terribly sorry," Ginny said, tongue in cheek, hoping that Hermione was getting at what she thought she was getting at. "But I did give it back in the end."
"Doesn't change the fact that I already went through all that excruciating pain and suffering. And you didn't give the book back, you ransomed it. I don't think 'sorry' quite does the trick here."
"It doesn't? Then what...?" Ginny tried to keep the raw hunger out of her voice, she really did.
"No. Clearly, what the situation demands are restitutions."
"Restitutions?" Ginny was suddenly gladder than ever that she had started the ridiculous game. I was right, Hermione is trying to play along! And by starting a new round, no less. "What could possibly be an appropriate price for all that excruciatingly agonizing pain and suffering?"
"Indeed. Mental anguish heretofore unknown to man nor woman." How Hermione managed to keep a straight face while saying those things, Ginny never knew.
"Do I even have anything that could make up for it?" Ginny held her breath. This was the most open she'd been since – well, the most open she'd been so far, pretty much. Gods, why is it so hard just to speak to the girl??
"I can think of at least one thing," Hermione said.
"Oh? What do you want, Hermione?"
"One kiss, I think. Then we can call it even." But her eyes held the promise that this went well beyond calling it even.
Ginny's heart lept up into her throat and attempted to strangle her, in a (mostly) good way. This proves it then! She would never, never have made up another debt like this if she wasn't interested. Yes! Yes yes yes!!
Ginny nodded her agreement, pressing her lips together lest her inner squealing become audible. "Just say when."
"How about right now?" Hermione stopped square in front of Ginny. Ginny accidentally-on-purpose didn't stop walking soon enough, and Hermione staggered back half a step as they collided. She didn't trip, though, and Ginny fleetingly regretted the lost opportunity to accidentally-on-purpose fall on top of her and snog her into the floor right in the middle of the corridor.
It was only a momentary regret, however. Their chests were smashed together, their noses almost touching, and Hermione's foot was still where it was after having trod on Ginny's toe while trying to regain her balance. All in all, it was heavenly.
"Ginny..."
Ginny closed her eyes and kissed Hermione softly on her parted lips. If she hadn't closed her eyes, she might have seen that Hermione's own eyes had widened as if beholding impending doom, and her lips were parting to speak a warning.
Too late, though. Ginny had no warning whatsoever when the next instant she was wrenched away from Hermione by the collar of her robes and roughly thrown aside. Ginny stumbled and fell to the floor, registering even as she fell that she'd have a nasty bruise on her hip in the morning.
"Granger! Weasley!"
Ginny massaged her abused neck and looked up to find Professor Snape towering over them. He looked positively gleeful. She got back to her feet and glared at him. Of all the times to meet the bloody evil bastard to out in the corridors after curfew...
"What is the meaning of this?"
To her credit, Hermione didn't hesitate for a moment. "I was snogging another student in the halls after curfew, Professor, just like it looked." She said it with a perfectly straight face, in the exact same voice she used to answer questions in class. Snape curled his lip distastefully. Ginny felt her admiration of the older girl go up another several notches.
"It's my fault, sir," Ginny said, feeling that she couldn't let Hermione take all the blame. "We've only just come from the library, and if I hadn't... waylaid her... then we'd have been in before curfew."
Hermione caught Ginny's eye and a smile played around the corners of her mouth. "No, sir, it was me who waylaid her this time."
Snape turned a bit green around the edges. "I do not want to hear the details of your sordid little tryst, Granger. Ten points from Gryffindor for breaking curfew, ten points for consorting with another student in public, fifteen points for sullying my view of the corridor, and twenty-five points for insubordination. Each. The amount will be tripled if either one of you so much as thinks of stopping again before you reach Gryffindor Tower."
"How many points is that?" Ginny whispered to Hermione as Snape swirled off, muttering to himself balefully.
"One hundred twenty altogether," Hermione whispered back after consulting the upper reaches of her eyelids for a moment.
Ginny whistled under her breath. "Almost as bad as the time Fred and George snogged each other in his class, then. Impressive. Wonder what the git has against snogging?"
Hermione snorted. "They did what?!"
Ginny grinned. "It was before I came to Hogwarts, but I've heard the stories. Apparently he was livid. Couldn't look at them for weeks."
Hermione snorted again, and then laughed out loud. "I can see it! He'd go apoplectic! Gods, talk about having issues..."
They were still out of breath from laughing when they came through the portrait hole a few minutes later, having taken pains not waylay each other a second time and further earn the ire of their housemates. Ginny had half a mind to waylay Hermione as soon as they got to the safety of the common room, but then there were people in the common room and something in Hermione's eyes told Ginny that now was not the time. Ginny could practically see the confidence she had worked up in the corridor draining away under the curious eyes of the room's occupants.
Hermione drifted toward the staircase to the Girls' Dormitories and Ginny followed her, noticing a space had opened up between them that hadn't been there on their giddy trip through the hallways.
Once she reached the stairs, however, Hermione lingered, still not quite looking straight at Ginny, but not seeming to want to leave her presence either. Ginny had rarely seen her friend wound so tight.
"Goodnight, Hermione," she said, gently.
"Goodnight! See you tomorrow, Ginny." She grinned and met Ginny's eyes for one nervous, glowing instant before turning and positively flying up the stairs.
Ginny was about to follow her – maybe she wouldn't be averse to being waylaid in the deserted stairwell? - when a sharp hiss made her turn around. Parvati beckoned eagerly from her place by the fire, and Ginny grudgingly went over.
"What was that all about? Spill."
Ginny wiggled her eyebrows and made suggestive kissing motions.
"No! Seriously?"
"Seriously," Ginny said. "Swear on my mother. Too bad Snape had to catch us though; I think we might have actually gotten somewhere this time."
"This time? You've been keeping secrets from me!"
Ginny yawned. "Ask me tomorrow, Parvati. There's not really that much to explain right now – I think she mostly likes me, but it's awkward. We got interrupted. She's this close, really." Ginny held her finger and thumb a hair's breadth apart and hoped that she was right. Hermione always said that sleeping on something helped her sort it out, and Ginny hoped it was true. She thought that if they hadn't been interrupted they would have been able to sort them tonight, though.
It was quite simple, really. Ginny wanted Hermione, demonstrably; Hermione liked kissing her, demonstrably. And Ginny was completely and totally in love with her. She didn't see what more evidence could be needed.
