A little late today. The first venture into sixth year.

December 1996

Tension filled the Gryffindor Common Room. One of the Fourth Year girls, Romilda Vane, had just attempted to give Harry Potter a box of cauldron cakes as a Christmas present. Lavender shook her head. Every girl in the tower knew how devoted Harry was to Hermione. Everyone in the school knew how protective Hermione was of Harry. Sure, she had relaxed in the last year but it was downright foolish to cross the witch.

The previous few months had been chaotic. Katie Bell had some nasty encounter with something that meant she was still in St. Mungo's after two months. She would likely be there for another three or four, Lavender had heard. Harry was badly shaken by the incident. Katie and the other chasers, Angelina and Alicia, both graduated, were among the few females that could be near Harry without Hermione making her presence known. There had been some minor issues between the trio and Hermione through third year but the situation had resolved itself, much to the relief of the rest of the house.

With Katie hurt, Harry had held a small tryout to fill the spot. No one else in the house had any experience as a Chaser on the team so Harry felt it the best way to handle it. Then Cormac McLaggen had shown up for tryout.

Cormac had many positive traits, Lavender confessed to herself. He was handsome, confident, reasonably skilled and moderately powerful. He also had many flaws. He was more arrogant than Malfoy on his worst day, couldn't comprehend why anyone would say "no" to him and simply a right pain in the arse. Lavender was quite proud of her bum and could do well without a pain in it. She had turned down his various offers a dozen times in the last year alone.

Lavender looked around to find Cormac currently talking to Ginny Weasley who was pointedly ignoring him. Two days before he had learned that Harry, Hermione and a few others were invited to Professor Slughorn's Christmas party and done everything he could to convince one of the girls to take him along as their date. Why he had approached Hermione was anyone's guess. Padma had told Parvati who had told Lavender that his acne scars resulting from Hermione's response could take years to heal.

Slap!

Lavender giggled to herself. Whatever Cormac had just said to Ginny had resulted in a bright red handprint accompanying his other facial disfigurements.

Turning back to the focus of everyone else's attention, Lavender saw Romilda sweating like crazy. Hermione had been staring at the girl with a blank expression for nearly five minutes. Lavender thought back to every other confrontation she had ever witnessed between Hermione and some girl and could not think of any other occasion where Hermione was as expressionless.

Looking at Harry, she could see he was still angry. Ever since Halloween of their first year, Harry had made it clear that he was with Hermione. Still, every year he had to fend off advances from at least a dozen different witches. Some no longer counted in Lavender's mind. Ginny Weasley was a given. Nothing Harry or Hermione ever did managed to dissuade the girl. It was almost like the sun rising in the east. It always would, just like Ginny would always make a play for Harry.

Lavender thought back to a rumour that Katie Bell had made a bid for Harry back in third year. It was a few days after that rumour spread that the situation had calmed down and Hermione no longer threatened to leave Gryffindor without a Quidditch team. After that, no other Gryffindor had made a serious attempt to win Harry's heart until Romilda. Ginny didn't count.

Other girls from other houses never seemed to learn their lesson. Lavender had often wondered what they found so appealing about Harry. She knew what she did – Harry was sweet, kind, caring, funny, handsome, intelligent, and so many other things – but if the other girls only saw his wealth or his fame, they were the last girls in the world Harry might pick should something happen between him and Hermione. Lavender suspected Malfoy had a better chance of winning Harry's heart than Harry and Hermione breaking up.

Lavender's eyes caught movement. Hermione had stepped forward, closing the gap between her and Romilda. Every Gryffindor stepped further back. The only sound anyone heard was Cormac muttering to one of the other fourth year girls.

Slap!

Every girl around Lavender smirked with her at that wonderful sound.

"Romilda." Hermione's voice filled the common room. Lavender watched as Hermione just shook her head. "At least, Fleur is worthy competition. If this is your best attempt, you aren't even worth a footnote. Even Stalker Girl over there deserves that much." Everyone watched as Hermione pointed to Ginny.

Hermione turned to walk away. It was unprecedented. Hermione Granger never drew her wand during the entire incident. She cast no hex, no curse, no jinx, used no magic of any kind. She simply walked away.

No one in the common room knew how to react. Harry had done wonders in keeping Hermione from killing them all but, without him stopping her, she had never done nothing. Thinking a moment, Lavender wondered whether or not everyone in the castle owed Harry a few favours for that. Hermione did use rather harmful methods from time to time.

The gathered crowd began to disperse. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief that no one had needed to duck out of the way of flying spells, Lavender heard Harry's voice. "Leave her alone, McLaggan."

Seeing Harry standing between Hermione and Cormac, Lavender wondered what she had missed during her musings.

"Oh, come on, Harry," Cormac practically sneered. "Hermione is free to choose whoever she wants to escort to Slughorn's party I just decided she should be with the best, that's all."

Lavender could almost hear Harry's teeth grinding. "She told you 'no' two days ago, or do you not recall how your face was disfigured?"

Cormac laughed. "I just caught her at a bad time. She didn't properly consider my offer so I thought I'd try again. Besides, the fun she and I could get up to after the party-"

Before she realized what happened, Lavender saw Cormac on the ground holding his groin. The idiot was rolling around, moaning in agony. Flicking her eyes to Harry, she saw him shift his weight back to center as his foot returned to the stone floor.

Harry turned to his girlfriend. "I need to go burn these shoes, Hermione. Mind waiting for me for a bit?" Turning his head back to the sad mass at his feet, Harry scowled. "And stop showing up to Quidditch practice, McLaggen. You aren't on the team. You have never been on the team. Bloody hell, you dropped the Quaffle nearly every time it was passed to you. Neville hates flying and he'd be a better Chaser than you." Looking over at Neville, sitting in a chair by the fireplace, Harry said, "No offense, mate."

Neville looked over at Harry. "You just compared me to McLaggan, Harry. How am I not supposed to take offense?"

Harry winced. "I said you were better than him."

Neville snorted. "Talk about a backhanded compliment." Lavender watched as the two boys broke down laughing. Once they regained control over themselves, Neville just waved the whole thing off as Harry turned to Hermione who had barely paid any mind to their byplay.

Seeing the look in Hermione's eyes just before she dragged Harry out of the portrait hole, Lavender realized no one would see the pair for a while.

Lavender fanned herself. Seeing Harry stand up for Hermione always got her blood pumping. Lavender wasn't sure there was any girl in the castle that didn't feel a tinge of lust for him when he did so. With a sigh, she muttered, "If I didn't have to fight Hermione for him, he'd be worth it." Stepping over a moaning Cormac, Lavender made her way up to the girls staircase.

"Hrm, maybe I could get Neville to take me to the party tomorrow."

Only five more days until my goal. Time for the final stretch. This story will not end after one month but I will most likely need a break at that point.