Happiness
Chapter Seven – Never Be Alone Again
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, as I'm sure you had all guessed by now.
A/N: The final part! Lots more girl/girl action in this one, but not enough to put the rating up to an R. I'm not that sort of writer. I'm sorry to see the end of this series, but trust me, this is in no way the last you'll be hearing from Paperdoll. I'm already working on the next one…
Hang on a minute…Why am I writing??? I have an exam first thing tomorrow morning! Nooooooo! Help me!
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Hermione woke early the next morning, and it took some thought for her to remember where she was. She sat up gingerly, easing the cricks out of her back and neck and gazed about the Weasley's small sitting room, disorientated. Eventually her sleep-addled mind registered that she had been sleeping on the sofa. Ginny's parents may have been tolerant enough about her and Ginny's relationship, however, they were not about to let their teenage daughter sleep in the same bedroom as the person she was dating, whether that person happened to be male or female.
Within seconds, the peace of the morning was broken by the thundering of many pairs of slippered feet overhead. A few minutes more and Ginny herself stuck a tousled head around the door.
"Morning sunshine!" she chirped, in a voice much too perky for such an early hour. "Breakfast in half an hour!"
Hermione yawned and nodded sleepily, beginning to disentangle herself from the duvet and struggle into a dressing gown. She made her way upstairs, narrowly avoided a head on collision with a stressed-looking Percy, and rattled the handle on the bathroom door. It was locked. George's head poked out of a nearby bedroom.
"Oy! There is a queue, you know! You'll have to be after me. I'm after Fred, who's after Ron, who's after Ginny, who's after Mum…"
Hermione instantly abandoned the idea of a long, hot shower, deciding it would have to wait till she got to school that evening. She hurried along the landing to Ginny's room, where all her clothes were. She met Ginny in the doorway, and gave her girlfriend a good morning kiss, but broke away quickly as Ron hurried past.
"Get a room, you two!" he muttered.
Ginny blushed. "I think we'll even have more privacy at school than in this place!" she complained, dashing away down the hall. She screeched to an abrupt halt outside the bathroom and hammered on the door. "RON!" she shrieked. "It was my turn!"
Hermione laughed, picked her perfectly folded outfit off the top of her trunk, and began to get ready.
***
The girls spent most of the train journey reading and chatting. Although the Hogwarts Express seemed almost empty compared with the ride in September, it was still impossible to find a carriage alone. As soon as they thought they had, a gaggle of high-spirited first-year girls had come barging in, so they resigned themselves to putting up with the giggling and ongoing games of exploding snap.
Hermione did spy Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil in a carriage a little way down the corridor, but she felt no inclination to go and talk to them. No doubt they would be full of questions, having heard the full story about her and Ginny from Draco Malfoy at the end of last term. She wondered briefly if they had believed the spiteful Slytherin, but decided that, even if they hadn't, she herself wasn't a good enough liar to gloss it all over, and neither was Ginny. Neither of them had discussed the fact that, by the time they returned to school, their relationship would be a secret no longer, but now it was a cold, hard fact that would have to be faced up to in a few short hours.
They arrived at school in the pouring rain, and rushed inside to the beginning of term feast, and to greet friends who had remained at school for the holidays. Hermione deliberately did not look anywhere except at her feet, until she sat down at the Gryffindor table, which seemed an inordinately long distance away from the door. She was sure everyone was staring at her and Ginny surreptitiously, which of course they weren't.
As the meal progressed, and no one said anything, she began to relax. She relaxed so much, in fact, that she found herself absent-mindedly staring at Ginny and picturing just what she would do with her girlfriend as soon as they had more than five seconds alone together…
A burst of giggling soon ended that particular fantasy. She dragged her mind back into the present and her eyes away from Ginny, and looked for the source of the laughter. Parvati and Lavender. Who else.
"So it is true," Parvati said slyly.
Hermione took a deep breath. "I take it Malfoy told you."
"Well actually it was Seamus, but I think Malfoy told him," Lavender supplied.
"So…you're not disgusted?" Hermione asked nervously.
"God no," Parvati said, looking horrified at the very idea. "What do you think this is, the fifties? Considering how many people go to this school, at least two had to be gay, and it just happened to be you and Ginny. We're happy for you."
"The boys may feel slightly differently though," Lavender added. "Idiotic, immature homophobes that they are. I don't think they're actually disgusted as such, but you might get some major teasing."
Hermione sighed. "That I can deal with."
"So," Parvati, ever the gossip seeker, asked. "Have you told your parents yet?"
"Unfortunately yes," Hermione shuddered. "But I'd rather not talk about it. Ginny's parents were fine about it though."
Lavender caught Parvati's eye and tactfully changed the subject. "Hey, guess what Dean said about Hannah Abbott's new haircut…"
***
The corridor was entirely deserted, except for a lone figure leaning against the wall near one end of it. Hermione hurried towards the figure and greeted Ginny warmly, leaning in for a kiss.
Ginny didn't say a word, but encircled Hermione's slim waist with her arms and pulled the older girl towards her. Hermione buried her hands in Ginny's thick red hair, luxuriating in the feeling of bliss that washed through her. She pressed Ginny up against the wall, her kisses becoming harder and more urgent, until she felt her girlfriend's hands fumbling with her cloak fastenings. Hermione immediately pulled back and stared at Ginny's flushed, dishevelled face.
Ginny lowered her hands at once. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, blushing crimson. "I thought you wanted to…"
Hermione put a finger to the other girl's lips. "I do," she whispered. "But not here, not in a corridor, where anybody could walk in and spoil it. I want this to be the best experience of my life, not some rushed fumble against a wall."
Ginny nodded, her embarrassment forgotten, a grin back in place on her face. "No, of course not, but I know just where we can go." She took Hermione's hand and led her down the corridor for what seemed like hours. Finally, she stopped in front of a large tapestry.
"Um, Ginny? What the hell?" Hermione was silenced by a short scowl from Ginny, who fished her wand out of her robes and poked the tapestry squarely in the middle. It wriggled and moved aside, revealing a door, which Ginny opened and walked through. Hermione found herself standing in a dimly lit, cosy looking room, filled with odds and ends of furniture.
"I found this by accident a few years ago," Ginny told her. "They store all the old and broken furniture in here. And look…" she pointed at a large lumpy object. "One of the old four-posters!"
Hermione walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it doubtfully, feeling the springs creak ominously beneath her. She looked at the expectant expression on Ginny's face, and knew that the younger girl had gone to great trouble, sneaking out of her room in the middle of the night, and was so proud of the place that she had found that Hermione couldn't say anything bad about it.
"It's perfect," she said, smiling warmly. Ginny's face lit up and she almost bounced across the room, landing in the middle of the bed, which let out a sigh and a cloud of dust.
Hermione laughed, only to find the sound smothered by Ginny's lips over her own. She relaxed into the kiss and slid Ginny's robes off her shoulders. Underneath, the other girl was wearing only a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, which Hermione wasted no time in removing. She ran her hands over Ginny's slender shape, feeling the silkiness of the pale skin, and started in surprise at the discovery of a pierced belly button.
"I never thought you're Mum would have let you…"
"Who said she did?" Ginny giggled breathily, "Maybe I just…" she began to kiss Hermione's neck and shoulders softly, "…got it done anyway. I'm not always such a…" she reached her hands back and undid her bra, "…such a good girl, you know."
***
Later…
Hermione lay with her arm stretched across Ginny's bare back, her eyes half closed. "We should get up," she murmured sleepily. "We need to get back to the dorms before anyone realises we're not there."
"In a…" Ginny stifled a yawn. "In a minute, 'Mione"
"No, now!" Hermione sat up suddenly and shook Ginny's shoulder, pulling a T-shirt over her head.. "It's 4am, we have to be back as soon as possible!"
Ginny moaned and buried her head in the pillow.
Hermione glared at her girlfriend and bounced up and down a few times. Ginny raised her head just as the bed gave up its struggle to stay upright. With a resounding crash, Hermione, Ginny and all the bedclothes were deposited on the floor in a heap of splintered wood.
Hermione struggled free of an offending blanket and sat up, breathing deeply to calm her thundering heartbeat. Ginny sat facing her, in the middle of the mess, her eyes wide and staring. Suddenly Hermione found the whole situation terrible funny.
That was how Professor McGonagall found them, a minute or so later. Helpless with laughter, sitting on the edge of the broken bed, Hermione wearing nothing but her t-shirt and a pair of knickers, and Ginny trying to pull her jeans on inside out.
For a moment the room was silent. The professor, seeming to be momentarily speechless, stood in the doorway with her eyes bulging out and her mouth moving soundlessly, like a fish. Hermione felt her heart, previously so light and carefree, plunge to her feet, suddenly leaden.
However, when Professor McGonagall finally recovered her composure, the girls were not greeted by the yelled tirade that they were expecting. Instead she told them, in a rather embarrassed tone, that she would wait outside while they got themselves "in order", and backed out of the room.
Hermione's jaw dropped and she stared at Ginny, horrified. "Do you think they'll expel us or something?"
Ginny considered for a moment, whilst turning her jeans the right way out. "Nah, not for something like this. Something tells me we're in big trouble though."
"And the award for 'Understatement of the Year' goes to…Miss Ginny Weasley!"
"Alright, alright," Ginny grumbled, then let out a nervous giggle. "I never thought I'd see her at loss for words!"
Hermione gave a watery grin and continued to dress hurriedly.
Five minutes later, Hermione opened the door and peered out sheepishly. Professor McGonagall gave her a stern glare, which, somehow, seemed to lack something that her glares usually contained.
"Miss Granger, Miss Weasley," she began. "I'm sure you both know that such behaviour is most certainly not condoned at this school. Under normal circumstances, you would be suspended, but given the approaching exams, and both your previously unblemished records, I'm inclined to be more lenient. However, it cannot go unpunished. You will both have detention, every night for a week for leaving your dormitories after lights out. I will not be taking points off your house, as I do not wish to cause either of you any further embarrassment, due to the, um, nature of your relationship. I hope you both feel that, if you need to talk, I am your head of house, and will be pleased to offer any guidance I can. You may go back to your dormitories now."
Hermione and Ginny nodded, and left, rushing down the stairs at high speed. Just before they entered the portrait hole, Hermione stopped.
"You know we deserved a lot more than detention," She said.
"McGonagall must be going soft in her old age," Ginny replied with a grin. She kissed Hermione gently and whispered, "See you at breakfast," before giving the fat lady the password and scampering off in the direction of the sixth year dorms.
***
"Earth to Hermione, come in Hermione!"
Hermione blinked and stammered, "W-what?"
Parvati sighed in exasperation and turned back to Lavender. Hermione sank back into her stupor, feeling as though she hadn't slept in months. Upon arriving back at her dorm the previous night, her head had hardly seemed to touch the pillow before her alarm clock was blasting in her ear. Ginny, now seated to Hermione's immediate right, seemed in much the same state.
"Well if it isn't the Mudblood, and her little carrot-topped friend. Just who I wanted to see."
"Piss off Malfoy," Ginny muttered.
"Ooh, I'm really insulted," Draco sneered. "You'll have to do better than that. But then again, I'm not really surprised you can't come up with anything better, after all you can't have got much sleep last night, what with all your perverted little goings on."
Hermione's head snapped upright. How was it that Malfoy managed to find out everything you didn't want him to know? It was as though he had spies posted on every corner. "Of course you'd know all about things like that Malfoy," she said. "Now who was it you said you fancied in that diary I found? Could his name perhaps have been Har-" She found herself abruptly cut off by Malfoy's roar of rage and his hand clamped across her mouth.
She did the only thing that seemed sensible, and bit it.
Draco backed off, cursing loudly and colourfully and dripping blood. Hermione spat into a napkin and wiped her lips. Catching Ginny's eye, they both started to laugh, joined by other Gryffindors around them.
Suddenly, Hermione felt a bubble of happiness well up inside her. Impulsively, she leant forward and captured Ginny's mouth with her own. Ginny only hesitated for a second, before returning the kiss joyfully. The Great Hall was silent only for a moment, before cheers broke out from around the room. Only the Slytherin's remained quiet, apart from a couple of boos.
Hermione didn't care. She felt so happy that she wouldn't have cared if the whole room had been booing. She broke away from Ginny and grinned, her own blue eyes never leaving the other girl's glowing brown ones.
"I love you Ginny," she said.
"I love you too Hermione," Ginny replied.
And in that moment, Hermione knew truly, what happiness meant.
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Eeek, I'm drowning in fluff! Well, that's the end of that then. I don't have time to list all the people who have been wonderful enough to review this, but please know that I recognise and adore every single one of you. Thank you all for reading, and please check back soon for further fics.
Love Paperdoll :-)
