Disclaimer: My house belongs to the bank, my work belongs to my boss and my money is always confiscated by my wife. And Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling... Damn...
Cold Blood
By DerLaCroix
Chapter 9: Who's there? Friend or foe?
Hermione was primed like a bomb by the time they'd made it back into the common room. While they were fetching their books, the rumor mill got going, and by the time they reconvened at the study table, it had reached full momentum.
"Too bad Snape is up, again. Potions was almost bearable without him," was heard from some sixth years, who were passing by, chatting, just in range to be overheard.
"Don't know what that buffoon did to knock out Snape, not that I don't approve of the result," a girl replied.
Hermione was quite miffed at them for insulting Harry, who didn't care. He didn't see himself as smart, and was used to being called worse, at 'home'.
"Yeah, I don't know what she sees in him. Granger dresses up nicely if she cares to, and is pretty smart. Guess it's the money, or the fame," another guy spoke as they reached the stairs and disappeared up.
If there were a meter attached to Hermione's temple, you would have seen the needle crawl into the red zone as he spoke. Harry noticed the growing amount of adrenaline in the air as Mount Peaches got primed for an eruption, but since he was the only one with that kind of warning system, it was futile.
"Or he's a real stud in the sack, you know, it's always the quiet ones," Dean laughed a few tables away, playing gobstones with Ron, either too stupid or insensitive to keep his voice down.
"Well, as far as I know, they probably are going at it like bunnies," was the reply from Seamus, which finally set Hermione off.
"Bugger all of you!" she yelled, long past the point of mild cussing. Standing up, she slammed her hand onto the desk.
"No matter what I do, you stupid gits will always believe rumors over the truth. If I get hanged for it, anyway, I could just as well commit the crime!" She hissed at them, shoving her books into her bag.
"Come, Harry, let's go to your dorm," she said, leaving for the boys' staircase, leaving her gobsmacked classmates behind.
ooOOoo
"Do I need to thank Dean and Seamus for being assholes?" Harry asked as he caught up with Hermione at the third floor, playing with fire.
Hermione huffed and climbed the last stairs to the fourth floor, barging through the door.
Immediately after Harry stepped through, she threw it shut and spelled it. When she added another locking spell and a silencing spell, Harry became nervous.
Hermione immediately recognized Harry's bed and approached it. Kicking off her shoes, she reached into her shirt. After some strange contortions, she suddenly pulled her white cotton bra out of her sleeve and threw it over Harry's chair.
She then hopped onto the bed and propped herself up against the headboard. "Come in, we need to get it on," she said.
Harry was eager to comply, perhaps a bit over-eager.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked confused when Harry started to unbutton his shirt.
"Well, we can't do it dressed, can we?"
"Why not?"
"Because it would be in the way?"
"Why? Everything works just fine for me," Hermione asked as she pulled a book out of her bag and opened it in her lap. "See?"
"Are you kidding me?" Harry gasped.
"Oh! Oh!" Hermione gasped as she realized the problem. "We are not doing THAT!" she huffed.
"Wha.. Why.. But... What the heck is going on?" Harry demanded.
"I was just teasing them," Hermione said. "If they won't believe the truth, I can just as well have some fun with them," she explained.
"And so you decided to tease me as well, leaving me with that hope and then suddenly change your mind and tell me it was only a joke once we're alone?" Harry growled.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you continue on like that, this might very well be the case. I had considered maybe letting you finally have a peek at them after some studying, but you are loosing points rapidly," she threatened.
"I almost can see them through your shirt, already. Not much in there for me," Harry tried to haggle, even though that offer was already more than he would have hoped for.
"Well, if you're content with that, then I'm fine," Hermione replied, knowing very well that her offer was one he couldn't refuse.
Harry frowned and kicked aside an unaware sock that was just innocently lying around.
"Come," Hermione commanded, and patted the bed next to her, smiling at him.
Harry smirked back. "Only under protest," he replied, mock-frowning.
"So you don't want me to invite you into my bed?" she teased, her lips curling into a amused smile.
Harry opened his mouth a couple of times, but was too tongue-tied to actually find a retort. He finally threw up his hands in surrender and stormed forward, flinging himself onto the bed. Hermione squealed when she was almost catapulted into the air when the mattress bounced back.
Their laughter died down quickly when the door to the bathroom opened, and a confused Neville appeared, wearing only a towel.
ooOOoo
"It's not what it looks like," Hermione quickly snapped off. "We only hide in here to study in peace, we can't go to the library this late," she tried to explain.
"I would believe that if it weren't for these," Neville replied coolly, extending a finger.
Hermione squeaked as she noticed what Neville was pointing at. She quickly reached out and retrieved her bra.
"Well, it's more comfortable to be without if you're just lounging around," Hermione tried to explain it away with a half-truth. Not knowing what to do with it, she stuffed it under the pillow. "Sorry."
"No problem, I see Ron's undies all over this place, all the time, and they are much less pleasant to look at. I was just surprised." Neville said with a shrug. "And I agree they don't look too comfortable, do they hurt or something?" He asked.
"Well, these are kind of ok, ones with narrow straps might hurt a bit as they cut into your shoulders. To me, they do itch a bit when I'm leaning against something, and they do confine your breath a bit, so I prefer going without when I don't need to, " Hermione explained, completely forgetting the awkwardness once she started discussing a topic.
"I see," Neville replied.
"Could you at least put some pants on if you're discussing my girlfriend's underwear in front of me?" Harry laughed. "It's almost surreal."
"Hey, what shall I say? I stumbled across you two frolicking, sharing a bed, with her underwear strewn all over the room," Neville teased.
"Makes hell of a story if you tell it that way, be sure to use that version," Hermione laughed.
Neville raised an eyebrow. "No worries about the rumors that would cause?" he said as he sat down.
Hermione shrugging her shoulders. "More like me not caring anymore. Talking about not caring - you seem strangely at home in this situation," Hermione asked, gesticulating a bit with her hands at Neville, simply sitting there, making no moves to cover up.
Neville chuckled. "Longbottom here, we are proud of our Norse ancestry. Due to a sauna and Great-uncle Algie's antics, I'm quite used to nudity," he chuckled as he went through to his trunk, looking for clothes. "So this is familiar territory. But I'll be decent in a minute," he promised. "And then I have to finish my Charms essay," he sighed.
"Want to join us?" Hermione offered, helpful as ever.
Neville laughed out loud. "I don't think I'm comfortable with joining you two in your bed, but I'd be happy if you could check it."
ooOOoo
Neville had barely found a place at one of the study tables before he was under siege.
"So, you scarred for life, now?" Dean joked.
"Why, should I be?" Neville replied, thumbing through his book to find a reference he knew was somewhere in there.
"So you're not upset about them... them... you know," Ron tried to find words, stumbling over his own insecurities.
"Not my business," Neville said, truthfully.
"And, what did they do?" Seamus asked. "Give us some details, man!"
"The only details will be those I'll put into my essay," Neville said, finally having found the page. "If you excuse me, I need to finish this."
With this, he started writing, ignoring them.
ooOOoo
When Harry later escorted Hermione downstairs, they were greeted by silence. Being used to that treatment, they didn't care, and sat across Neville.
"How did it go?" Hermione asked.
"I survived the inquisition, and am almost done with my essay. Fancy having a look?"
"Of course," Hermione happily replied, readying her quill and red ink.
"You enjoy this entirely too much," Neville grumbled good-naturedly. Harry chuckled in agreement.
"So, Harry, how's your broomstick doing," he asked, trying to pass the time, while Hermione started to eviscerate his work.
None of them noticed the eyes on them.
ooOOoo
"Ummm, Harry," Hermione asked next morning, right after stepping off the stairs into the common room.
"Got it in my bag," Harry replied, patting the same. "But I'm afraid that my roommates found it first. Seems like they felt the need to inspect my bed," he added with a frown.
"Really?"
"Yes. I can smell their paws all over it, seems like Seamus even lay down in my bed where your shampoo was still lingering. And each of them handled your bra," he growled.
"Really? Well, I'll burn it later, then," Hermione said as she went through the portrait hole. Harry huffed with amusement when he heard her mutter about perverts.
Finding their places on the table after a semi-pleasant walk through the awakening castle, Harry immediately knew that there would be nothing good coming from the last night's counter-strike against the "gitty trio".
There were simply too many hastily dropped conversations when they entered the room.
ooOOoo
Later that day, after class, Harry looked up as he heard familiar, heavy steps approaching their table in the library. Almost out of habit, he quickly swiped his eyes to replace the spell to hide their appearance. The new glamour spells would hold a couple of hours, but better safe than sorry.
"Haari Poter, Hermine Gransher," the thickly accented voice of Victor Krum whispered in greeting as he stepped up and sketched a bow.
"Victor Krum," Harry answered with his own nod, noticing that Victor slightly winced when Harry spoke his name. Hermione pronounced it a bit differently, like "Kroom", which obviously was the right pronunciation. Harry found it amusing that to Krum, their accent was just as thick.
"I am not man off beeg vords, but vant to tell you I respect your dezishion. I don't like to haff tings dezided by ze refferees, but you hat goot reasonz," Krum spoke, before sketching another bow to Hermione.
"Also, I apologize to you for the incidend at ze dance. Our countries seem to have very different sign languages between men and vemen, and I hat no intent to disrespekt you," he apologized formally and wooden, which made Hermione blush brightly.
"No, you don't have to, it was as much my fault, getting you in such a situation," she stammered.
"Maybe, but I like you made public statement defending me. I vas having trouble with ze press at home over dis."
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to cause you trouble," Hermione cried out.
"Dos not matter, your message shut them up quite vell. I wonder what dey vill come up next wiff - you both know how bad dese vultures can be if dey vant to," Krum replied, waving it off.
Harry had to huff at this. By now, he and Hermione had a good idea how bad it could be, especially for a international sport star. 'Krum assaults schoolgirl' would be quite in the alley of what the Prophet would write.
"Yes, we know," he replied.
Krum smiled back, a little. "One day a hero, next day, dey vant to haff you executed. Always one or the odder, but never dey leave you in peace."
"In my opinion, the people are worse," Harry replied. "I never understood why they think they have the right to write their opinion to people they don't know."
Victor smiled and shook his head. "Haari, dey think dey know you. And all of dem think dey are experts. I get dese letters by de waggon after every match. I sometimes read dem for laughs."
Looking around if someone was watching them, he leaned in to whisper a comment. "Got empty heads and empty lives, so dey seek out to fill dem with something. But I did nod say dis."
Even Hermione could not resist laughing. A sharp hiss from Madame Pince, even though they were alone in here, shut them up to the point of soft giggles.
"Not very nice to speak of your fans like that," Hermione whispered back, fighting giggles as she did so.
Victor grinned back, thawing more and more the longer they talked. "My fans are alright, goot peeple. But dose don't write dese letters, dey just stare at you in public or ask for autograff."
Harry frowned at these words. "I still find it creepy."
"Comes with de job, as dey say. You learn to ignore it. Especially iff you go professional - I haff heard you are goot Seeker! Thinking of it, ve may be competing against each other again, one day," Victor chuckled.
Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, and dove back into her book as the conversation became Quidditch-centred.
Harry, on the other hand, had the time of his life, getting very good tips on some advanced manoeuvres and technique, up until Madame Pince chased them out of the library.
ooOOoo
"How bad can it be?" Hermione asked as they navigated the dungeons towards double Potions. They had been dreading that moment all week long, ever since Snape had returned.
"As long as he doesn't pull a wand on me, it will be better than last time," Harry tried to overplay his own tension with a joke.
Mentioning that didn't do anything to calm Hermione down. But it helped at fuelling her glare at a Ravenclaw third year that was making cow-eyes at Harry as they passed by.
True to his prior prediction, Harry had heard various fragments of rumors that were circulating that week, and caught more than one guy eyeing Hermione. He made a point of not leaving her alone, even though she could handle herself.
Strangely, it seemed as if those kinds of rumors had made him more attractive to the female population, as if he were a prize in a different kind of tournament. Just the other day, some Beauxbatons girl had been remarkably less than subtle with her signals as Harry dutifully stood guard in front of the loo Hermione had excused herself into.
She was lucky to be a coward, for she bailed as soon as Hermione had come into sight. While Hermione always held him back when he was about to see red, Harry wasn't the guy to keep someone from committing excessive violence.
ooOOoo
When class began, it was very much like it always has been. Snape was almost as arrogant and haughty as before, but he was completely denying Harry's existence. During role call, he skipped directly from Patil to Thomas, only ticking Harry off his list without mentioning him.
It didn't escape Harry that Snape flinched briefly when all over the classroom, the fires were lit, almost as one. Such small motions always caught his attention these days, for some reason. Snape glared briefly at no one in particular, before he turned to yell at Neville.
"Watch it, Longbottom, I won't have you burn down my lab! One point from Gryffindor!" He yelled when Neville's fire flared a bit high during ignition, even though there wasn't any problem with it.
Harry was having trouble with his fire, though. All the while their polishing potion was simmering, his flame occasionally became stronger and weaker. The more he tried to correct the problem, the worse it got. He almost believed that Snape was having a hand in this, but the man was blatantly ignoring their table, and didn't have no wand out.
Hermione seemed to have the same problem, but to a lesser extent.
"Miss Granger! Would you please get your fire to burn constantly? This is first year curriculum, one point from Gryffindor!" Snape suddenly ranted at Hermione, looming over her from behind them.
While Hermione still was staring at him, he suddenly continued. "And while you're at it, teach your bench mate how to do it, as well! Another point from Gryffindor!" He proclaimed, turning his back on them and walked over to harass Neville some more.
Hermione had to place a hand on Harry's arm to keep him from challenging the professor, and started working on his flame. After fiddling without success for a few minutes, she set it to an average height and told Harry to ignore it. Strangely, it worked better that way.
By the end of class, they lost two more points due to fires flaring too much. Harry had waited for Snape to do something blatantly obvious, to call him out on, but his dreams did not come true.
He even found himself hoping that Snape would pull a wand on him, just so he would be able to strike back, but nothing happened.
Ok, Snape did handle Harry's vial for longer than necessary - almost as if he were considering dropping it in order to smash it - before putting it into the rack, but that was the furthest he went.
ooOOoo
The next morning started quite well. Having the uncertainty of Friday's double Potions behind them and only one week left before leaving for London certainly brightened up the mood. Especially Harry's, he was thrilled about the prospect of spending time with Sirius. Soon, Harry and Hermione found themselves at a somewhat pleasant breakfast.
Halfway through it, Ginny waltzed in, late as usual, and sat down right next to him. This wasn't too unusual, but Harry noticed Hermione's nostrils flaring briefly as even she must have noticed the perfume Ginny was wearing.
She massively overdid it with whatever she did, but it smelled nice. Made Harry think of the burrow, the orchard, Quidditch games, pleasant stuff like this. But underneath the brutal wave of smell, there was something subtle to it, an undertone that would barely register with standard human smell. But it was pleasant, enticing even.
Enticing enough that it rang a warning bell.
When Ginny turned her head to reply to some sixth year next to her, the scent intensified as her hair waved around. Harry earned himself a sour look from Hermione, but he had to comment.
"New shampoo, Ginny?"
"Did you notice?" Ginny almost broke her neck as her head swung around for her to smile back at him. "Mum sent me this new one, claims it would be better. I love the smell!" She said, her smile taking on a somewhat coy note. Harry briefly wondered if she would flutter her lashes at him, next.
"Yes, it's nice. A bit strong, though," Hermione commented, spearing her scrambled eggs a bit fiercer than usual, but holding back remarkably.
Ginny blushed slightly. "Yeah, I'm not quite used to it and overdid it a bit," she confessed. "Anyway, think your broomstick can be repaired? I overheard you talking with Neville the other night," she changed topic, just as Harry spied one of the owls heading straight for him.
ooOOoo
"I'm not sure whether she or Molly are up to something," Harry commented to Hermione on their way to their hideout to read the letter.
"Huh?"
"Her shampoo, It's laced with something, I think. If she used less, even I might not have picked it up," he said with a frown.
"Laced? With a potion? Might be part of the formula of it, ever-shiny, or something," Hermione rationalized.
"No, it was definitely something that caused attraction. Even though I knew it was there, it was an effort to fight it. Even you were affected."
"Me? How did you come to that conclusion?"
Harry had to chuckle. "Peaches, anyone else who had tried flirting with me so blatantly would have ended up as tiny bits in your ham and eggs!"
"She wasn't!" Hermione tried to defend Ginny, until she suddenly realized that she shouldn't. "Wait! She was! I'm going to shave her hussy head!" She growled, turning around to stalk back.
"Letter now, evisceration later," Harry noted as he pulled her along with him.
ooOOoo
"What did he write?" Hermione asked while Harry had barely unfolded the letter in their hidden room. Harry needed a few moments to skim the first few paragraphs before he could reply.
"Bad news, he has not yet finished cleaning up the place."
"That bad?"
"To quote him, he considers driving a bulldozer through the house and burning everything that is left," Harry chuckled.
"Is the library safe?" Hermione asked, having her priorities clearly laid out.
"You just lost me a galleon," Harry sighed. ""Sirus bet that'd be the first question you'd ask."
Hermione crossed her arms in front of her and huffed. "I can't see anything wrong with that. Anything else?"
"He asks if it's a problem if I'll have to stay at your home right away, until he gets the house in order," Harry continued.
"You'll never be a bother," Hermione said as she pinched his arm. "We'll write them a letter tonight, so that they can plan accordingly. Anything else?"
Harry rolled his eyes as she kept badgering him, but continued his report. "He wants us to stay alert, and that I shouldn't forget that I can do wandless magic undetected outside of Hogwarts. And also, that if it comes to the worst, we shouldn't care about that, anyway."
"As usual, I guess. Oh, I almost can't stand the wait, anymore. Only one more week!" Hermione smiled as she slightly bounced on the balls of her feet. "You will love my parents!"
Harry didn't know that he would hear that quote a couple of times over the next week. To him, it sounded as if Hermione was trying to convince herself as much as him.
ooOOoo
Three days later, Harry got the answer to the question he had asked after Saturday's breakfast.
"Ginny, you better stop that," he said as he was lounging in the common room, his chosen couch right in front of the fireplace, enjoying the heat.
"What?" Ginny asked, looking like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and not regretting anything.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice you flashing bits of skin at me whenever I'm looking in your direction? All the flirting?"
"Well, I hoped you would notice," Ginny almost purred as she stood from the single seat across the settee arrangement from which she had surreptitiously flashed her legs and cleavage at him ever since Hermione had excused herself to take a shower.
"See something you like?" she said, as she slowly made her way over to him, trying to push out her breasts as much as possible. He wondered if she might have used a spell on her uniform shirt or just borrowed a smaller one. Normally, these did not fit that tightly. She'd also undone the top three buttons, the combination making them look far more impressive than they actually were.
Most of the guys in the room had noticed them by now, but almost all of them were more interested than Harry. Colin was always the odd one out. At least he wasn't trying to take pictures of it.
By now, she had reached him and got into a crouch in front of him, almost as if to chat, but giving him a good view into her cleavage. Harry wasn't even tempted to look.
"I know what you're doing, and it's not going to work," Harry replied as she almost casually flicked her hair, increasing the density of whatever her shampoo contained.
"Huh?" Ginny's face suddenly lost all the seductive qualities as she strained to compute.
"I know that there's something in your shampoo," Harry said, in a matter-of-fact tone.
Now Ginny really looked as if she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Her eyes were big as saucers. Of course, she quickly recovered.
"I didn't know it would be that obvious. You are the first one who noticed," she complimented. "Anyway, that was just to help you making the right decision. You know how I feel about you."
"Yes. The problem is that I don't feel that way for you," Harry replied.
"Harry, you know that we would be great together. We.." Ginny started, and stopped as Harry had caught her hand, which was about to touch his thigh.
"I am with Hermione. That is not subject to discussion," he said, pushing her arm away.
Ginny used that momentum for a pratfall, pretending to her lose her balance and fall on her bum. Which gave her a perfect opportunity to flash her knickers briefly at him before she 'saved' herself into a proper, almost decent kneeling position.
"I know why, but you can have all that from me, as well. Also, I'm a lot more fun than she is," she said from down there, trying to sound seducing.
Harry was starting to see red.
"Ginny, for the sake of our long friendship - back off. I don't know why you think this would work on me, and I don't care. I don't feel that way towards you and I never will!" he said, staring her straight into the eyes, without wavering.
Ginny's eyes did show a lot of emotions as he continued. None of them were positive.
"If Hermione were here, you would never dare to do this, and I preferred you never did. Even hinting at that I'm only with her for 'that', is insulting and not even remotely true. You know her well enough to know that these rumors are rubbish, and I feel disgusted that you have the gall to bring up all that nonsense with me. Leave now, and if you ever try something like this again, I'll hex you, understood?" Harry threatened, and for a moment, he was afraid the spell on his eyes had failed as Ginny gulped and nodded, almost scrambling to get away from the exposed place at his feet.
Not even looking back, she fled up the staircase, leaving Harry to wonder briefly, before he wiped his eyes, just to be sure, before he continued his book on runes.
People witnessing the scene knew better. There would be much gossip in the days to come about how Potter had brushed off a brazen attempt at mate poaching with a verbal bitch slap and a glare that would have made Voldemort himself back off.
ooOOoo
Finally, they had survived the last week of classes before the break, and found themselves in the Hogwarts Express on their way to London.
For Harry, it was a new experience in some way. He himself had never had any reason to go home during Easter break, but it seemed that most other students used the break to visit their family.
Still, they easily managed to get a compartment for themselves, as no one wanted to sit with them, anyway.
Especially since Hermione's nerves were so frayed from the upcoming meeting with her parents, that she was snapping about everything.
"Stop flipping through the book!" Hermione finally huffed somewhere near Edinburgh. Harry's head shot up at that, but it took a few moments for Harry to properly register the insult.
"What? I'm reading it," he protested.
"Honestly, Harry - I know the speed you're reading at; this isn't reading, you are just skimming through."
"Am not!" Harry protested as he put down the book.
"Harry," Hermione said in the calm voice someone uses with a petulant child, while pointing at the open book. "These are Nordic runes, you want me to believe you can read this as fast as you read plain English?"
"The love of the maid I may not keep you from winning, you guest so wise, if you can tell me all that now I wish to know of every world," Harry said, his eyes directed at the book.
Hermione had to shake her head to overcome the sudden confusion at his words. "What?"
"That's the verse you're pointing at," he growled at her, a challenging look in his eyes. Hermione's right eyebrow crept higher as she doubted it, but she read the text, nonetheless.
"That can't be true," she stated, quite in awe. Plucking the book from his hands, she shuffled a couple of pages, and pointed at another paragraph. "Read this," she commanded.
"I never have seen more wealth of old wisdom in a single man; but with wicked guile I have betrayed you: The day has caught thee, dwarf - now the sun shines here in the hall," Harry read aloud, as if it were plain text. "And now you've spoiled the story for me," he added with a frown.
"But... How?"
"Dunno. It's just a different alphabet, that's all."
"Harry! This is Old Norse! It's not as if they just wrote English text in different letters - it's a different language! I gave you the basic books just a few weeks ago, and now you are reading advanced poetry!"
Harry gave the book a perplexed glance. "It is? You're right - I never noticed. To me, it felt like an old form of English, with bad grammar and a slightly convoluted structure - how cool is that?" He said with a satisfied grin.
Hermione threw her hands in the air and started pacing in the compartment. Some girls passing by quickened their steps as they saw her ranting at Harry.
"Cool, he says! He never noticed! Bad grammar! Honestly, Harry!" she ranted, punctuating each about-face with a statement, all under Harry's self-satisfied smirk. Suddenly, she stopped and looked at him with an agitated expression.
"I have to introduce you to Aztec runes," she said, and started to rummage in her baggage in the overhead stowage. After only a few moments, she pulled some parchment and a quill out.
Harry cursed his life - though silently- when she sat down and started making a book list that he believed would take him half a year to work through.
ooOOoo
A good hour later, Harry nudged Hermione as he heard something. "Neville's coming," he told her, not lifting his head from behind the Nordic runes book he was still reading. Hermione replied with a grunt, not putting her book on advanced charms down, neither. It would only look suspicious if they did, and the chapter was too enticing, anyway.
Moments later, someone knocked at the door to the compartment.
"Are you two decent?" Neville joked, pretending to have his eyes pressed shut, firmly.
"Give us five minutes to finish, shower and dress," Hermione replied in a flat, droning voice.
Neville's jaw dropped at Hermione's reply. A moment later, he erupted in a loud, deep belly laugh that no one would have expected of him. It was infectious, though.
While still laughing softly, Neville slid into the compartment and found a place opposite them.
"Now that's elitism. Hogging your own compartment," he said as he stretched out. "Much better than cattle class."
"It's a hard life," Harry replied with a grin. It was good to see Neville. That boy didn't have a false bone in his body. It was refreshing knowing exactly where you stood with someone.
"Upper class problems," Neville agreed. "But still better than where I fled from. Ginny is still in a bad mood because you brushed her off, Dean is trying to make a move on her, and Ron is mad because of both events. Charming atmosphere, I tell you. I wouldn't wonder if you'd have to rinse one of them out of the carpet when we arrive."
Hermione almost growled when he mentioned her other former friend.
"Still miffed?" Neville foolishly inquired.
"Why shouldn't I be? She only went behind my back and used love potion, breasts and even spread legs to try and seduce my boyfriend," Hermione hissed dangerously.
Harry smirked slightly as he remembered the scenes that followed that incident.
He had thought a long time whether to tell Hermione or not. In the end, he had informed her the next day, after class. Hermione had taken it rather well, considering everything. In the end, the prefects had to intervene and had to drag Hermione out of the room to end the screaming match that was set off the moment Hermione stormed up the staircase to Ginny's dorm. But Ginny was still in one piece, not bodily harmed or in any other way mutilated. Hermione was warned to stay at least 40 feet away from Ginny.
They later extended a similar warning to Ginny, pertaining to Hermione and Harry, both. That warning was delivered much more quietly, but with almost equal ferocity. Even though Harry's and Hermione's social status wasn't the best, poaching within Gryffindor house was still frowned upon.
"Not to forget insulting me in public by claiming that Harry's only with me because I'm a slut that shags him, which we're not even close to doing, at all!" Hermione still ranted when Harry returned to the present moment..
Neville raised both hands in defense. "Ok, ok, I get it. Just don't hurt me."
"I should have hurt her!" Hermione hissed.
"What has become of taking the high road?" Harry asked, amused.
"I'm starting to believe that vengeful Hermione is the way to go. I came across an interesting spell to write words in hard to remove pimples on someone's skin," Hermione replied.
"By accident, I presume," Neville joked. He shut up quickly when Hermione smirked at him in a truly sinister way. "Damn, you're one scary bird, Hermione."
"I thought you found that out the hard way, back in first year," Harry joked to defuse the situation. It worked, Hermione almost instantly blushed as he brought it up.
"Oh yes," Neville laughed. "Man, thinking back, that was quite a story, wasn't it. I still don't know what possessed me to think I could pull that off," he laughed.
"I think your inner Gryffindor started to show," Hermione replied.
"That's a nice way to say I was being stupid," Neville laughed. Harry and Hermione also laughed along, for the first time truly relaxing around someone.
AN:
Embi was doing her usual "scare the minions to death" inspection runs around the new base, when she suddenly stumbled over some huge wire that someone had laid through the hallway. Well, not exactly someone, she had a very distinct idea who would be so insane to run a huge-ass wire up to the observation tower during a lightning storm.
Especially since it seemed to only be isolated by a single wrap of electric tape. The charred body of one minion, the foot still welded onto the wire he stepped on, was testament to this.
Seriously considering her options, curiosity won out, again. One day, it would cost her another one of her lives...
Following the cable, and keeping a good distance to it, she descended down into the Dark Lord Cliffy's personal domain.
Stopping before the half-open door, she felt a tickle of static behind her, fractions of a second before the cable suddenly glowed white-hot as the current of a lightning bold rushed through it, into the lab.
The resulting insane cackling of "It's alive! It's alive!" made her reconsider her prior decision, feeling that checking up on her zombie survival kit for completeness should be the new top priority on her list.
ooOOoo
Ooops, I seem to have woken a sleeping dragon... :D
Thanks to Embi and Alix for their help in sorting this mess out. :D