Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has- The Princess Bride.

I woke up early the next morning, thankfully. I felt a little sore, but it wasn't too bad. I don't know what spell he had used on me, but it was a good one. He was still asleep, and he had his arm draped over my waist, holding me close to his body. I was half draped over him, and our legs were tangled together. My head was resting on his chest and my arm was wrapped around his torso. I was extremely comfortable, and happy. I felt light and giddy, reminding me of how I felt the first time I woke up in his arms.

I tilted my head back slightly, just enough to look at him. He had a wonderfully peaceful, happy, look on his face. Far better than he had looked last night after his nightmare. Staring at him now I couldn't believe every thing that had happened. Last night had been incredible, and it had been real. I could scarcely believe that he had loved me before, now I could hardly fathom it. I had never known life could be so good, so incredible. I'd never known anything could feel so right.

A slight shiver of delight coursed through my body just thinking about it, but I cut it off before I could wake him. He hadn't been sleeping so well recently, and he'd been up late last night. No thanks to me either, though he had slept much better after our little… well, after wards he'd slept much better. It made me happy to know that I could help him sleep. I'd never felt so loved and wanted as I had last night.

"You're watching me again, love." He said suddenly, popping his bright eyes open and looking at me with a large, lopsided grin. I giggled at him and nodded my head.

"Yes, I was." He smiled even larger, making my stomach do a flip flop.

"You're not whispering." He whispered, grinning mischievously.

"No, I'm not." I said as though it surprised me.

"You're breaking a rule you know." He said importantly. I giggled at that, grinning as I nodded my head.

"Oh dear, I'm guilty as charged, I'm afraid."

"I'm afraid we'll have to punish you for your crimes then." He said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively and causing me to giggle again.

"I'm going to have to throw myself at the mercy of the court and most honorable judge then." I said in my most pleading voice.

"Then let's see, I believe the punishment should be that you must return to these quarters after dinner, at which time I can do what I please with you."

I blushed slightly, but felt flattered. "I have to wait for tonight?" I stretched up and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Can I persuade you to up the date of the punishment?" I purred, fluttering my eyelids.

"That's bribery, I'm afraid that will cost you another night." He said, a small smile trying to quirk his lips up.

"Oh dear," I said in a worried voice. I stretched up again and pressed another, longer kiss to him, while I ran my hand up his body slowly.

"Two more nights." He murmured, bringing his hand up to my hair. I pressed another kiss to his lips and then moved to his jaw. "What are you playing at, another punishment?" He asked in his mock serious voice. I grinned against his throat and pulled back enough so that he could hear me clearly.

"I'm going for life." I said in a silky voice, pressing my body to his as I brought my other hand up his chest.

"Then the court grants the punishment as adequate." He said, slowly pulling my lips back to his. He tilted his head at the last moment so that his lips were barely brushing against the shell of my ear. "Get ready to pay up, love." I shivered against him and moved my head, allowing him to claim my lips in a heated kiss that quickly led to other things.

It was a good thing I had woken early. It would have been dreadfully late when I left otherwise.

-oOOo-

"What's going on with you and Fred?" Harry asked casually as we walked through the corridors. I'd had an extremely hard time leaving Fred's room this morning. Guards had been posted outside it at sometime during the night. I'd found out that Arthur had posted guards outside all of our doors during the night for 'security' reasons. After discovering I wasn't in my room George had guessed what had happened and had obliviated the guards, making them both believe that I had gone to my room.

"I was upset after everything that had happened with Arthur and I went to his room. I stayed with him because I didn't want to be alone." I said, avoiding the subject of what I had done once I was in that room. I hated to think what Harry would have done if he found out, he tended to be a bit over protective and I didn't want Fred to have someone else that wanted to hit him.

"Right." Harry said, sounding like he thought I was leaving some of the story out. "I'm sure that's all that happened."

"Do you really want the details?" I asked, a blush coloring my cheeks.

He blushed as well, and averted his green eyes in embarrassment. "No," he stuttered. "I'd really rather not hear them."

"I didn't think so. I'd rather not give them." I replied, trying not to laugh at his now obvious discomfort. He was the nut who had started it.

"Good, I don't want to hear it."

"We can both be happy then."

" Do we turn right here?" He asked, pointing to a hallway that led out of our current corridor. I nodded my head and followed him down the passage. It was cool, probably because it was made entirely of stone, and would hopefully lead us to the garden. Neither of us had been to them yet, but we had both gotten directions and decided we would check it out. I wasn't permitted to hang out with Fred or George any more, but I was allowed to hang with Harry. I was going to stay with him until night, at which time I would sneak off to be with Fred, regardless of what was allowed.

"How did your dinner end up going?" I frowned and turned towards him, scrunching my nose up in disgust.

"Awful." That was putting it very lightly. It had been worse than awful. "He was odd, angry, and possessive."

"How so? Did you not tell him you were interested in Fred?" I looked at Harry out of the corner of my eye and repressed the urge to roll my eyes at him.

"I did, and the evening literally blew up in front of my eyes. I told him I loved Fred and he said he was going to fight for me." Harry let out a loud laugh and I whipped my head towards him, glaring at him in annoyance.

"It is not, and was not funny."

"No, it's not, but it really is." He said, fighting another laugh.

"That makes no sense."

"Yes it does. It's not funny, because I've seen how much it's annoying you. It's really funny though because no one has this problem."

No one has this problem. Those five words echoed around in my head and made me stop walking, my mouth falling open in shock as I realized how right he was.

"Hermione?" Harry questioned, stopping and stepping back to me.

"You are right."

"Of course, but what about?"

"I shouldn't have this problem, he's more obsessed than normal."

"People are normally obsessed?"
"No, I mean, he's way over the top. Almost like he was being magically influenced." Harry's eyes widened and a look of shock crossed over his face.

"You could be right." I nodded my head, feeling awful. We both started walking again, neither of us having to say anything.

"Are you going to have to go out with him?" Harry asked after a moment, his green eyes glancing at me.

"Yeah, he wants to see me again tonight." I said darkly, fighting the urge to glare.

"You could try and run some test, see if he's being magically influenced at all."

"You, know, that's a really good idea."

"You sound surprised." Harry said wryly.

"Only a little." He grinned at me, his smile making me smile as well.

"We found it!" He exclaimed, sounding surprised. I looked up and was surprised to see that we had finally reached the garden. I smirked, staring at Harry before putting a look of mock hurt on my face.

"Did you doubt we would?"

Harry grinned, clearly trying to suppress the urge to laugh. "I was with you on the hunt, neither of us are any good at directions."

"I was better than you though." I said in a snooty tone.

"That's not saying much." He said dryly. I laughed out loud at that, following him to a bench in front of a tree.

"You had a really good point about Arthur though. I'm going to try and see if he's influenced tonight."

"I'm just brilliant, what else can I say?"

"Yes, brilliant, and funny."

"I'm complicated." He said with a grin

"I have found out that you have about as many layers as a flower."

"A flower?" He asked with a snort of laughter. "Couldn't you pick something more masculine?" I laughed at that, flashing him a mischievous smile before looking back out at the garden.

"I picked a flower in honor of our spot, but, okay, how about an onion?" It was the only thing I could think of with layers.

"I hate onions." He told me with a frown. I laughed again at that, it was so Harry.

"There's just no pleasing you, is there?" I asked, grinning unashamedly at him. I missed talking with him like this.

"Nope, you know me, I'm complicated."

"While I'm pretty sure you already said that, I'm more than willing to overlook it." I said, settling onto the bench and leaning back so that my back was against the tree. I let out a contented sigh and closed my eyes. Enjoying the peace and calm of the garden

"This is fun."

"Huh?" I asked, opening my eyes and leaning forward so I could see him more clearly.

"This is fun. Sitting here, just you and me. We haven't done anything like this in a long time. you know, just hang out. No impending doom, no searching, just relaxing and talking."

"It is fun. We haven't done this in a long time."

"I'm glad this hasn't changed."

"Why would it?" I asked, tilting my head curiously.

"Well, you're dating someone now, and I can understand you wanting to spend your time with him. I also thought Fred wouldn't want you to hang out with me too much."

"As if I would have let that stop me. You're my best mate, Harry. Always have been, always will be. I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that we're together right now. This trip would have been a lot worse with out you."

"Then it is about to get a whole lot worse." A dark, painfully familiar voice growled out. The words echoed around the peaceful garden, causing me and Harry to both jump up, withdrawing our wands and aiming them at the dark corner of the garden where the voice had originated from.

"What do you want?" Harry snarled, his wand sparking at the tip. A dark cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows of the corner of the garden and I found myself tensing up at the sight of him. It was Mordred, and he seemed to be alone this time. Where was Morgana? What did he want? And why, for the love of Godric, Merlin, Cerce's and whoever the heck else I could think of, did he keep coming after me? He was about to really, really, make me mad. I was about to lose it, I was going to hex this sorry excuse for a wizard to his real time.

My own wand was sparking just as badly as Harry's.

"Now, really, is this any way to greet the son of the king?" He asked, a truly evil grin lifting his lips. Harry twitched his finger slightly, a sign that he was about to attack with a disarming spell. He always did that move, it was a subconscious move that I had learned to read from hours of fighting and practicing with him. I acted on my own instinct, and the moment he threw the spell, I raised a shield, blocking a flash of blue light from Mordred. The shield held, protecting us from whatever it was that he had just shot at us.

Harry stepped back, sending another spell, a stunner by the looks of it, at the same time I sent a freezing charm. They flashed against his shield, ricocheting off of it and slamming into the wall with tremendous force. I could hear a thunder of footsteps from the corridor behind us. I guess the guards were headed towards us, it was about time. I would love to have some help for once when we fought this man. Every time I'd had to fight him it had been just me or one other, the guards had never been there when we were fighting.

"Bombardo!" Harry bellowed, sending out a powerful blast. I sent a impedimenta at him immediately afterwards, knocking him back. He yelped, falling to his knees as he summoned a shield charm. I stepped forward, sending my most powerful spells at him, making the shield shake under the force of them. Harry stepped up beside me and sent another disarming spell, a second too late. Mordred twisted into the air, disappearing with a very loud crack.

The chicken had once again fled before the guards or us could finish him.

"No!" Harry bellowed, charging forward to the spot Mordred had been only moments before. I shook my head and followed him, a slight sense of fear rising in my stomach. Something wasn't right about this attack, everything about it had been different. He had chosen to attack me when someone else was there, he had let us fire first, and where was Morgana?

The thunder of feet I had first noticed when I was fighting Mordred came to a halt behind us. I spun around first, and was shocked to see only two, very frazzled looking, guards.

"Milady," they said, bowing quickly and dismissing me before turning towards Harry. "Sir James! Your companions, Sir Fabian and Sir Gideon, they have been attacked!" All the reprimands I had on the tip of my tongue, ready to spout out at these insolent guards for not caring about me or the fact we had been attacked, died, and I felt my legs sway underneath me.

I think we had just figured out where Morgana was.

Before I was sure if they were even done speaking I was already running towards Fred's chambers. That was where they would most likely be, Fred was still 'injured' so George had been spending his afternoons with him to help keep him from being so bored. I could hear Harry running behind me, but it didn't even bring me to pause or hesitate for a second. I had my wand drawn and I was ready to fight, to kill, that witch if she was anywhere near the vicinity of Fred or George. My blood was pounding in my ears and my breath was coming in short, painful gasps as fear rose up with in me. Morgana was as powerful as Merlin, she could seriously hurt them. What if she had surprised them? What if she had hurt them? Hurt Fred?

"Hermione, wait!" Harry called after me, I didn't, couldn't, stop. A few meters later and he was by my side. "You can't go in alone." He panted, I didn't turn to look at him, I was too focused on where I was going. I had forgotten how very fast he was, he'd had years of practice running from things.

We reached the passage way that Fred's room was at moments later, slightly out of breath, but only more alarmed. There were scorch marks on the outside of Fred's door. My heart fell to my stomach and my steps wavered for the first time. Harry shot past me, stopping in front of the door before running into the room. I ran in behind him, my heart hammering and my legs shaking as I stepped into the room, coughing as the distinct smell of sulfur reached my nostrils.

A/N: Thanks for all the reiews guys! The poll results are in, the hottest Gryffindor boy is, Fred with 29 votes! George came in second with 26, Oliver in third with 10, Harry in fourth with 8, Bill in fifth, and Ron, Dean, and Neville tied for last. A new poll is up so go vote for it if you're bored or interested :)