~Falling For Each Other~
*Chapter: Four*
A/N: Here is chapter Four. Chapter Five will be out very soon. This chapter is not a cliffy but the next one will be. (Just warning you) hehehee. I'm reall hyper right now but it shouldn't have effected my righting because I always right my authors notes last. Enjoy. Please R/R thank you.
All Hermione could see was a tall shadowy figure standing above her. She was scared to death.
"Hermione, oh jeez I didn't mean to scare you." Hermione recognized the voice as Harry's and sighed.
"Well you did." Hermione said. "You really shouldn't go sneaking up on people like that." she advised him as he sat down in front of her.
"Well maybe you shouldn't be hanging around in the library when Madame Pince is at dinner." Harry began as he stared around at how dimly lit the library was at the moment. "What are you doing in here anyway?"
"Thinking about things, like...never mind" Hermione trailed off realizing who she was talking to. "By the way, why didn't you tell me you liked Cho? I thought you said you got over her."
"I don't like Cho." Harry retorted.
"Come on Harry, your tongue was down her throat." Hermione said in a harsh voice.
"You saw me?" Harry said in horror. "Hermione....I swear, she caught me off guard...I didn't have enough time to pull away." Harry said trying to explain what happened.
"Yeah, sure." in an unbelieving voice. Hermione didn't realize how much she was giving herself away.
"Why would you care anyway, Hermione? It's my business not yours." Harry said, starting to get angry at Hermione's attitude toward him.
"I never said I did." Hermione tried to come up with an excuse for sounding like she was so mad. So she just told him what she really thought, minus the part where she liked him. "It's just....there's gotta be something wrong with her. I mean she was so upset last year when Cedric died. Wouldn't you think she was still getting over him a little bit. I know if I was her I wouldn't be ready for kissing someone so soon."
"There's nothing wrong with Cho." said Harry starting to get defensive. For some reason he felt like Hermione was insulting him and not Cho.
"Then there's something wrong with your judgment." said Hermione.
That was it Harry snapped. Now she had insulted him. "There's nothing wrong with my judgment or with Cho. You're....You're just... jealous." He said furiously.
"Jealous!? Jealous!? You wish, Harry Potter! Just because I'm the only girl in this school who isn't drooling over you like a puppy dog, doesn't mean I'm jealous!" and with that she stormed off. Hermione went up to her room. She was upset, yes, but she was also furious with Harry. Tears were tickling the back of her eyes. She lay faced down tears pouring silently down onto her pillow. He was right, she was jealous.
Harry walked the dimmed corridors he could hear the lingering voices of the last few people coming from dinner. He took his time getting up to Gryffindor tower. He shouldn't have said that to Hermione and he knew it. Deep down for some reason he had wanted to make Hermione jealous. He thought it would make her pay more attention to him.(A/N: Come on people you know you've done that before) And he had a feeling she was jealous, but saying it to her face in such a manor to make her storm off was not good at all. Harry certainly didn't want to lose Hermione over something so stupid.
As the days went by Harry got the feeling Hermione was trying to avoid him, and Harry wanted to avoid her too. But this didn't exactly work out. They were both friends with Ron and whenever one of them was with Ron the other didn't want to be left alone and it usually ended up all three of them together again. Although, even when they were together Hermione and Harry rarely said anything to one another and only spoke when Ron talked to them.
Friday quickly melted into Saturday and it was the perfect day for a Quidditch match. The morning was cool and crisp and Harry was ready to beat Slytherin. He walked down to the locker rooms and got into his scarlet Quidditch Robes. Harry, being the new captain for the Quidditch team, sounded just like Oliver when he gave his pep talk. Finally, he and his team were ready. Slytherin was going down. They marched out onto the field and mounted their brooms as Madame Hooch blew the whistle. Harry soared above everyone looking for a glint of gold any where. Malfoy came up beside Harry. "Why even bother to look Potter?" Malfoy said coldly "You know I'm going to get the snitch first." Malfoy must have found this oddly funny because he flew off sniggering. Harry just rolled his eyes, and smirked as Angelina scored her fourth goal of the game. Gryffindor was up 40-10. Then Harry saw it. A tiny glint of gold very near the grass 60 feet below him. He saw Malfoy out of the corner of his eye dive just as Harry did. Harry screwed up his face as he forced his firebolt to go as fast as possible...he was pulling ahead...the snitch was just in front of him....he reached out his hand and...he got it! Harry held his hand up in the air that was clutching the snitch. The stands erupted. Harry landed softly on the ground a big grin on his face as Malfoy and his fellow Slytherins scowled. Harry was held up by the Gryffindor team as everyone cheered and ran down to him. There were slaps on the back, hugs, and even some kisses on the from the girls. He could hear Ron yelling above everyone else. "That's my best friend!!". Harry just grinned as everyone cheered. As the last people walked off toward the castle Harry noticed Hermione standing a distance away from him. She was wearing a loose gray sweater that she was hugging it closely to herself. Harry had to talk to her. He walked up to her slowly and she turned her eyes away from the grass and up at him.
"I didn't think you would come." Harry said simply.
"Of course I came. Who wouldn't want to come watch you kick Slytherin's asses?" Hermione smirked slightly at him, but he could still tell she was upset about what had happened the days before. He could see it in her eyes. He decided to try and lighten the mood.
"Hermione Ann Granger, did I just hear you swear?" He said smiling. Hermione forced a laugh but decided she couldn't take this awakwardness any more.
"Harry, I'm sorry...about the other night and all...." she began
"No Hermi, I'm sorry it was partly my fault." he said. He bit his lip and spoke again. "How about we just forget that ever happened and go to dinner, ok?" Harry noticed her eyes brighten.
"Ok." she said. Harry put his arm around her shoulder in a big brother sort of way. (Which was exactly what he wanted it to look like, but in reality the arm he had around her was tingling, and his heart was beating quickly.) Hermione was glad that she and Harry had made up. But in reality it wasn't such an easy thing to forget.
As they entered the Great Hall for dinner everyone was still chattering excitedly, except for the Slytherins who were oddly quiet and had sour looks on their faces. Hermione looked around the hall as they sat down. Some of the Halloween decorations were all ready up, in preparation for the ball the next night. Ron was the first one to start talking. "So who are you guys going with to the ball tommorow night?" he inquired.
"Well, I'm going with Cho." Harry said.
"Hermione who're you going with?" ron asked. Ron seemed eager to know.
"Nobody. I'm leaving my dance ticket open." Hermione smirked.
Ron smirked and said in a medieval tone "Save a dance for me m'lady?"
Hermione giggled. "Sure."
"Yeah me too." Harry said.
Hermione blushed slightly. "Of course. I'll save you both dances." Harry, Hermione, and Ron were talking and laughing as usual until Cho walked over, and Hermione became very interested in poking her mashed potatoes with her fork and Ron just stared blankly up at Cho.
"Hi Harry, I just wanted to tell you that I'll meet you in front of the Great Hall tomorrow night at seven ok?" Cho said sweetly.
"Yeah, sure Cho." Harry said.
"Great! See ya then." and she walked off. Harry saw both Hermione and Ron's eyes follow Cho out of the hall.
"Harry?" Ron started. "Is it just me or does Cho seem a bit to sweet?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that everything Cho says sound kind of well...phony."
"I don't know what you mean. She seems normal to me." Harry said as he pushed his plate away. "How 'bout we go upstairs now. Hermi you wanna help me study for that transfiguration test on Monday?" Harry said turning his attention toward Hermione.
"Um...sure." Hermione said. "You coming Ron?" Hermione asked as she and Harry got up."
"Nah...I'm still hungry. I'll meet you guys up there."
"Ok." Harry and Hermione chorused. And they walked up to the common room. They found a round table in the corner of the room where it was quiet and they could study. As they were going over the review questions of one of the chapters Harry found himself starring at Hermione, oblivious to what she was saying.
"Harry? Harry?" he heard his name and snapped out of his 'trance'. "Harry do you know the answer?" Hermione asked.
"Huh?" was all Harry said.
" I think you've had enough studying for tonight, we can try more tomorrow." Hermione said closing her book and yawning. She then checked her watch. "Wow, it's 11:30 allready? Where in the world could Ron be? He should've been up here three hours ago."
"Maybe he went up to bed." Harry said.
"Maybe... Well I think I'm going to go to bed now. I don't want to look awful at the ball tommorow. G'night." she said and went up to bed.
"You could never look awful." Harry mumbled as he heard the door to her dormitory close.