Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing I tell you! All the characters, places etc. belong to JKR.
A/N: A few of you say you think you know what the scary thing is in Harry's bag. You'll have to keep guessing because I'm not telling! For anyone who's a bit starved of Harry/Hermione action there's plenty in this chapter - read on!

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SO WHAT NOW?
Chapter Nine

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Harry and Hermione reached the store cupboard on the four floor in what must have been a record time. To Harry's immense relief there was nobody else there. They slipped inside hoping that nobody had seen them. "Thank goodness there's nobody here," Hermione whispered. Harry didn't reply. Instead, he kissed her softly.

"I know what you mean."

They soon became engrossed in a series of passionate kisses. Hermione's hands were entangled completely in Harry's hair. His hands were somewhere around her waist. They were pressed so close that it seemed they were surgically attached to each other.

Hermione giggled slightly as Harry planted a small kiss below her ear. "You like that, do you?" Harry asked. Hermione smiled and was about to reply when the door was flung open. She groaned seeing Ron and Lavender stood there. "It's really not our night is it?" she asked Harry. "First we see..." She trailed off, realising she had said more than she should have.

Harry glared at her and she blushed.

"We're so sorry!" Lavender exclaimed. She elbowed Ron in the ribs. "Aren't we, Ron?" she hissed.

"Uh, yeah, of course."

***

"You're hiding something." Ginny didn't bother looking up at Ron's accusation - he was usually suspecting her of something. "Ginny!"

Ginny sighed, looking up at her older brother. Ron was sat directly opposite her, staring intently at her. His Transfiguration book was laid out beside him as he had a theory exam the following day. Ginny had been reading 'Starlight' and mentally doing a love match quiz to see how well she scored with Seamus. "What do you want?"

"You're hiding something," Ron repeated slowly.

"I'm not hiding anything," said Ginny, turning her gaze back to her magazine. She tucked a piece of her flaming red hair behind her ear and began to hum softly.

"I knew it!" Ron exclaimed. "You are hiding something!"

"What are you on about?" Ginny asked irritably, not looking up. "Where's Harry?"

Ron said, "Charms exam. Whenever you're hiding something from me you tuck your hair behind your ear and start to hum! You always have! Come on Ginny, there's what? Eleven months between us? I think I can tell when you're hiding something from me."

Ginny rolled her eyes and looked at Ron. "All right," she said, putting her hands up in defeat. "You got me. It was me who gave Bogey to Fred for Bludger practise."

"I knew it!" Ron yelled, pointing at her. He had gone quite pale with anger beneath his freckles. "I told mum but she wouldn't believe me! She kept saying that you loved him as much as I did!"

"I did," said Ginny shrugging. "It's just that I was four years old and had no idea that hitting a puffskein with a big wooden stick would kill it." She scowled at Ron. "Anyway, you threw Rosie out the window."

"It was only a stupid doll!" retorted Ron.

"She was my favourite doll! When Fred and George hid her I couldn't sleep for a week until mum made them find it!"

Ron smirked. "I remember that - you used to climb into my bed because you were so scared without it."

A slight tinge of pink appeared on Ginny's cheeks, but Ron's cheeks were redder than hers when she said, "I stopped doing that when you wet the bed!"

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"Did not!"

"Isn't this a tad immature?" Ginny asked.

"Is not!"

"Is to! Wait, I mean, yes it is."

"Hey, Lil' Red," said Seamus grinning, flopping down onto the couch beside Ron.

"Bog off, Irish," Ginny replied. She stood and walked out of the Common Room through the portrait hole.

Seamus smiled to himself. This was all just an act to fool Ron who still had no idea about their relationship. It was also their signal to meet outside the Common Room for one of their secret meetings. He looked at his watch. "Damn, I'd better get going - I have to meet Dean," he told Ron.

Ron shrugged. "Bye, then."

Seamus quickly exited. The second he had stepped through the portrait hold he was pulled aside by Ginny and taken into a long, slow kiss.

Ron was surprised a few minutes later when Dean Thomas walked through the portrait hole. "Where's Seamus?" he asked.

Dean looked confused. "He's outside," he told Ron. "Why?"

Ron's brow furrowed. Something was up, he could tell. "No reason," he told him, and rose from his seat, heading over to the portrait hole. As the portrait hole closed behind him, Dean's jaw dropped in shock. Seamus was still outside with Ginny. He had know about the two of them for a few weeks after walking in on them in a rather compromising position. He had vowed to keep quiet, but it looked like Ron was about to find out about them anyway.

***

"If that was a Quaffle I wouldn't have dropped it!" Padma insisted, picking up a pile of parchment. Harry grinned at her.

"Sure you would."

"Please! You've seen me in the air! On the ground I'm a complete klutz!" Padma exclaimed.

Harry shrugged. "Obviously Draco doesn't think so." They were just about to go into a Charms exam. Padma had been skimming over her notes when Harry had crashed into her, too busy thinking about Hermione. Padma blushed and Harry couldn't help but laugh.

Padma scowled, but her face suddenly turned to an expression of curiosity. She pushed up her reading glasses and said: "A little bird told me you've been offered a place on the England Squad. True or false?"

"True," Harry replied, frowning. "I don't know if I'll take it yet. I don't really know what I want to do when I leave school. Quidditch isn't exactly a long-term career option. No offence, Padma."

"None taken," said Padma. "I don't think of it as long-term either. In fact, when I'm not training on the Quidditch Pitch I shall be training to be a lawyer."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Before you start discussing career options I suggest you pass your N.E.W.T's," a voice said behind them. Professor Snape stood there, his usual scowl upon his sallow face.

"Yes, Professor," said Padma, with a brightness in her voice that Harry could tell was totally fake. So, evidently, could Professor Snape.

"Get in there and take your exam," he ordered gruffly, pointing at the door. He strode swiftly through the door, his black robes and pale skin making him look like some sort of vampire.

"After you," said Harry, holding the door open.

"Thanks, Harry," Padma said smiling. "Oh, and good luck."

***

"Get your hands off my sister!" Ron ordered loudly.

Ginny and Seamus broke off mid-kiss to look at him. Their hands were intertwined, and while Seamus looked half-scared of Ron, Ginny looked angry.

"What if I don't want him to take his hands off me?" she questioned.

Ron gaped at her, pale faced. "What did you say?" he asked quietly. Ginny could tell that he was incredibly angry.

"You heard me," she replied.

Ron blinked in astonishment, then he turned angrily to Seamus. "What about you? What were you doing kissing my sister?"

"Enjoying myself," Seamus replied. Ginny smiled.

"You do realise she is a whole year below you and my sister. Most importantly, she's my sister!"

"My last girlfriend was in the sixth year."

"But she wasn't my sister!"

"Excuse me, Ron," Ginny said calmly, "but I seem to remember you trying to play matchmaker with me and Seamus."

"But it didn't work," Ron told her.

"Actually..." trailed off Ginny.

"You mean you've been dating for eight weeks?"

Seamus shrugged. "Give or take a few days."

Ron sat down on the floor. Hard.

"Is he in shock?" Ginny asked, slightly worried about her older brother.

"I think so," said Seamus. He waved his hand in front of Ron's face, trying in vain to snap him out of his trance.

"Hey, Ron!" Ginny called. "I think Bogey's breathing!"

"He is?" Ron asked hopefully. Then he seemed to realise where he was. He scowled at letting himself be tricked by Ginny like that. "Grow up, Ginny!"

***

"Have any of you seen Hermione?" Harry's question had no response from the group of seventh years (and one sixth year). They were all looking tired and haggard - they had just one day left of N.E.W.T's exams. Harry knew that they definitely lived up to their name - Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Levels. He asked again, "Have any of you seen Hermione?"

Parvati looked up from her magazine. She was flipping through Witch Weekly trying to clear her mind before cramming the last of her Transfiguration revision. "She's up in the dormitory. I'd be careful if I were you, Harry - she's seriously stressed."

Harry nodded. He knew only too well what Hermione was like when she was stressed over exams. During the O.W.L's in fifth year Hermione had taken his voice away whenever she was revising so he couldn't bother her.

He walked slowly up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. He found the dormitory Hermione shared with Lavender and Parvati easily - it was the one with 'Seventh Years' emblazoned on the door. He knocked tentatively. After a couple of seconds a reply came; "Come in." It was Hermione, her voice muffled by the thick oaken door. Harry pushed the door open to be confronted by what looked like a storm of paper. Hermione's notes and all her books were spread over the floor and the beds. Hermione herself was perched on the end of her four-poster.

The door clicked as it swung shut behind Harry. "Did the door just lock?" he asked.

"Yes. What do you want?" she asked sullenly.

"Do see my girlfriend," Harry said, picking his way through the piles of parchment that covered the floor. "Or do I have to make an appointment?"

"I'll have to ask my secretary," asked Hermione with a smile tugging on the edge of her lips. She sighed. "Ten years ago if someone had told me to revise how to turn a mouse into a tea cosy I would have laughed at them."

"Our lives are different than other peoples," Harry agreed.

Hermione frowned and pushed some of the books onto the floor. "Oh, who am I kidding? I can't do this!"

"Of course you can. You're the cleverest witch I know," Harry told her, settling himself onto the bed that was next to Hermione's. He figured it was Lavender's as there was a framed picture of Ron on the bedside table. The photographic Ron was posing for the camera.

Hermione scowled. "Harry, could you at least pretend to care about what's happening?"

"You think I don't care?"

"I think these tests could govern our entire future and you're being ironic detachment guy."

"Would it help if I panicked?" Harry asked.

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed. "It would be swell! Panic is something people can share in times of crisis, and everything is really scary right now! We're leaving Hogwarts in a few weeks and then we have to be grown-ups! I'm not ready for it. At Hogwarts everything is safe and you only have to worry about being late for classes. In the real world we have to worry about bills and jobs and settling down and having a family!"

Harry suddenly lunged forward from his seat and kissed her tenderly on the lips, his hand cupping her face. Hermione melted into the kiss, but after a couple of seconds she pulled back. "What are you doing?" she asked, slightly dazed from the kiss.

"Panicking," Harry told her, kissing her again. As one they fell back onto the bed, pushing more books and parchment to the floor.

***

A/N: I'm going to leave it to your imaginations as to what happens next. I hope you liked this chapter. Please read and review. Can I get 100 reviews? Please? Pretty please? That's only 16 reviews! You can do it! The next chapter should be out soon (when I've written it, that is...)
P.S. I'll dedicate the next chapter to the first person who tells me in a review where I took the last Harry and Hermione scene from!

Here's a thanks section for Chapter Eight:
IC - You'll just have to wait to find out what's in Harry's bag.
ms. potter - I'm already planning a sequel. The working title is: 'Happily Ever After?'.
jackrussel666 - Okay, so I didn't get the 90 reviews, but I was only six off!
hudsonlv426 - From your review I'm pretty sure you know exactly what is in Harry's bag. You should find out if you're right in the next chapter.
E. C. R. Potter - The next chapter is up now! :)
Satans Little Princess - Thanx!
Heaven - I hadn't really planned on writing what happens in Filch's closet, but I wrote a little bit just for you!
Abby-Potter - Cliffhangers are fun!
Gryffindor Quidditch Angel - Thanx!
Noodlejelly - No, Padma plays Chaser. I'd actually forgotten about Harry's amazing Quidditch talents! D'oh! I'm planning for a Quidditch match in the next chapter.
Panny-Plan - That's a good idea, but sometimes I think situations from Friends are a bit hard to put into H/Hr stories (unless they're from the earlier seasons). I do have some ideas though...

Review, Flame, Whatever.

silverphoenix