"Harry." Ron's voice was deceptively mild, but the Boy-Who-Lived saw storm clouding over his best friend's dark blue eyes. The twins were lurking ominously behind him like double shadows of Harry's doom, but seemed content to allow Ron to handle the confrontation.
He swallowed nervously, green eyes flicking to Ron's closing fists. "Yes, Ron?" It hadn't been planned or anything. She just.. Ginny had been helping him clean up the common room one weekend, when everyone had gone to Hogsmeade & one thing led to another, thanks to him tripping over Neville's toad and sending them both sprawling. On top of each other. And he had taken leave of his senses, temporarily. Cause she was there and Cho.. wasn't. Never had been really.
The twins watched him carefully. Harry knew he was almost family, but Ginny was family, not to mention their only sister. There was no question where their loyalties were. He shrugged at them feebly and Fred sized him up before conferring with George behind one hand. They both nodded and backed up, giving Harry one more warning glance.
And afterwards he'd explained that yes, Ginny was nice and all, but he thought of her like a sister... other than that one moment, where he'd thought of her nothing like a sister and more like a lov- Harry visibly winced, thanking God the Weasley boys could not hear his thoughts.
"Ron, I'm sure it was just an accident." Hermione intervened quickly, seeing that his anger had rendered Harry speechless. And if someone didn't say something soon, she wasn't sure Ron's tenous grip on his self-control would last.
His gaze snapped to her. "How the bloody hell do you accidentily kiss someone?"
She could her hackles rising immediately & scolded herself. Don't get into this with him here- "Well, you certainly wouldn't know, would you!" Hermione flinched. Idiot!
Ron's mouth dropped open in bewilderment, and turned his full attention to the now irate female (because ignoring them is generally dangerous). Why was she mad at him? "What do you mean by that?"
Harry slouched down in his seat with relief. Thank you Hermione. He fought back a tiny smile, seeing the familiar vision of the two squaring off. Some things never change.
"I mean, Ronald Arthur Weasley, that some people have feelings and ..and.. they get caught up in them and each other & things happen!" Hermione's shoulders heaved with anger, her tensing fists clenched firmly at her sides. "But you wouldn't know, because you don't suffer from that problem." She spit viciously. "You don't get caught up in anybody but yourself." Hermione could feel hot tears welling & grit her teeth. I will not cry over you, Ron. Purposely evading his eyes, she sat down abruptly, suddenly very interested in the potatoes in front of her. Throughly confused, Ron stared, completely distracted from defending Ginny's honor.
Across the hall, Ginny sighed in relief. She had not been relishing the idea of having to pull the boys off of Harry by insisting she had kissed him. Because that would've been extremely embarrassing and she'd done quite enough embarrassing herself for one day. Red strands fell in front of her face as she looked down to examine her shirt. It was cute, but where had it come from? She could've sworn she'd been wearing a Weird Sisters t-shirt today & it had certainly not been this fitted.
"Virginia." A low drawl caught her by surprise & Ginny bit back a yelp, whirling around instead. She swallowed, brown eyes going wide.
"Malfoy." She whispered, voice almost fading out on her. There were remnants of the pie she had bestowed about him so enthuastically still clinging to his no doubt very expensive robes. Dear God, what had she been thinking? He was going to kill her.
He smirked. "Frightened, little Weasel?" This was the proper order of things. The tiny redhead shirking in terror before him and no insidious thoughts about how perfect her lips were to distract him. He lifted her chin and his cool eyes searched her face impartially. Wide eyes, small nose. Pale. But not as pale as that irritating brother of hers. Freckles. Across her nose and speckling her cheeks with abandon. That red hair was cut sharply around her shoulders, highlighted with bits of gold. The cheekbones were high, though not strangely so.
Ginny tried desperately to quell the trembling in her stomach. She knew she should run, smack his hand away. They were in the Great Hall, it wasn't as if he would hurt her, but .. he shouldn't be touching her. And she shouldn't be letting him. Hit him. Hex him. Do something. He was so close...
Hiis gaze fell to her mouth & suddenly the girl darted a step back, her eyes fixed on him warily. A small scowl crossed his lips. Annoyed with himself for still being fascinated & with her for interrupting his study.
Draco had a very analytical mind. If there was a problem, he examined it. And the youngest Weasley turning him on was certainly a problem. He grimaced, suddenly thankful that he had remembered to put his work robes back on. Those pants... they would scare her off immediately. Apart from her singing, Virginia was a timid creature and such solid proof would not have gone over well. Draco's mouth quirked, imagining the reaction on her face. A rather detailed mental image of him pushing her up against the wall, her small hands tangling in his hair as he throughly ravaged her mouth resulted from that and Draco just barely managed to keep his jaw from dropping.
He scowled at her. Damn her for affecting him this way. Blasted little weasel.
Ginny noticed him scowling & her stomach once again doing Wronski feints, she met his grey eyes steadily. A small hint of surprise flickered across his expression before Draco picked a bit of pie from his cape, still holding her gaze.
He nodded once slowly, something akin to a smile tugging at his mouth. A calculated one, but almost a smile nonetheless. It wasn't at her exactly, more like a thought he'd had amused him. A chill ran down Ginny's spine.
Draco had noticed her. And suddenly she was seriously regretting ever wishing he would.
Over at the Gryffindor Table, Ron had taken a seat and was darting panicked and confused looks at the girl sitting across the table stewing silently. What had he done? He'd been yelling at Harry when Hermione had completely irrationally stood up, yelled at him & then promptly become furious with him. He hadn't even said a word! In all fairness, he should be mad at her. Ron never knew what to make of Hermione. Some days he would swear she hated him and then he'd do something - he never knew what it was, exactly, just as he wasn't sure what he had done to make her angry in the first place, but a grin would suddenly spread across her face and those cinnamon eyes would sparkle at him again. And the world was perfect. Nobody looked at him like Mione did when she was in a good mood. She made him feel like he could do anything. Like he wasn't just Harry Potter's sidekick. He was Ron Weasley & he made her smile.
The twins started to snicker rather unkindly. "Percussion." Fred & George intoned simeltaneously.
"Strings." Lee chimed cheerfully, the same stupid grin spreading across his face. He nudged Harry.
"Winds." The Boy-Who-Lived's gentle baritone took up the opportunity to keep the focus far away from himself eagerly.
Seamus' mouth quirked up in amusement, his eyes beginning to twinkle as he caught on. "Words."
All five boys turned their gaze on Ron, whose feelings, unfortunately for him, were written clearly across his face as he stared at the girl across the table, her bushy hair obscuring her face from view. In a word, the poor boy looked lovesick. One should never look lovesick in front of your older brothers & best mates. It leads to bad things.
Fred clapped a "friendly" hand down on his brother's shoulder, George on the other side. Ron's eyes were becoming increasingly alarmed as he realized they had effectively trapped him between them. "There you see her , sitting there across the way" He saw where they were motioning and his stomach started sink.
"Noo.." He hissed at his brothers, trying not to panic. They wouldn't.
Neville stood behind Hermione, observing her thoughtfully. "She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her." Ron plotted his roommates' death behind dark eyes.
"And you don't know why, but you're dying to try" They grinned at him and Ron wondered if he could manage to throw up on all of their shoes at the same time.
"You wanna kiss the girl" Dammit, did they have to say that? Hermione was looking up now, shock across her face. Ron silently wished for death.
"Yes, you want her." Ginny had walked back over & her imploring soprano filtered through the air, none of the boyish immaturity the twins displayed with their quirking brows evident. "Look at her, you know you do."
Ron glanced at Hermione almost against his will and then flushed when she shyly met his eyes, breaking eye contact immediately.
His brothers grinned. "It's possible she wants you, too"
"There's one way t' ask her" Seamus pitched in, rich Irish brogue heavy with insinuation. If Ron had dared looked he would've seen Hermione's eyes widen. "It don't take a word, Not a single word."
Hermione saw Ron bow his head and flushed with embarrassment. He didn't feel that way. But his brothers kept going and she decided there was going to be a field trip to the restricted section to find the appropriate hex for this. Something involving developing extra limbs or female anatomy, if she had anything to say about it.
"Go on and kiss the girl..."
The House Elves had rather conviently supplied the Creevey boys with blue socks, which were currently dangling on either side of Hermione. She darted them both a glare to kill before folding her arms crossly and looking off in the distance as if she couldn't care less.
The twins were regarding him solemnly across the table. "Now's your moment!" Harry whispered suddenly, but before Ron could turn his head towards him his brothers picked it up, sinister behind their identically innocent smiles and harmonically plotting his doom.
Fred motioned towards Hermione with his head. As if Ron couldn't see that she was ready to kill him! "Floating in a blue lagoon.."
Dean shook his head at him warningly. "Boy, you better do it soon."
"No time would be better." His supposed best friend commented helpfully. Right. They'd all gone mental. Hell, Hermione looked furious. Angrier than he'd ever seen her. It would have been rather fascinating if he wasn't so damn sure he was going to be in a heck of a lot of trouble over this.
"She don't say a word, and she won't say a word.. Until you-" George arched his eyebrow at him, grinning fit to kill.
"Kiss the girl." Lavender Brown supplied softly, looking rather dangerously dreamy-eyed. What had gotten in to everyone? And did they have to keep *saying* that?!
"Everybody on the left!" Fred commanded, jumping atop the table and waving his hand back and forth. Ron's side of the table swayed obediently with the chorus, banging into him from either side.
"Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.."
Harry's muscled shoulder smacked him rather hard. "Hey! That hurt Potter!" The Boy-Who-Lived (shortly to be the Boy-Who-Was-Killed-By-His-Best-Friend) ignored him.
George leaped up to join his twin, using his wand with conductor's grace worthy of the Philharmonic. "And on the right!"
"Don't be scared., you've got the mood prepared-" The Creeveys chorused, waving their socks enthuastically. Hermione clenched her eyes shut, feeling a blush creeping up her cheeks stubbornly.
"Go on and kiss the girl, .Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la"
"Don't stop now-" Ron threw down his fork in agitation, using his long legs to propel himself up at alarming speed. Ears flaming red, he clenched his fists and glared at the entirety of the Gryffindor house.
"Bloody hell, can't a man eat around here?!" They ignored him. Again. Grumbling, he made as if to turn, but Harry suddenly pushed him forward and Ron barely managed not to get a face full of pumpkin juice and turkey as he fell across the table in a rather undignified fashion.
"Don't try to hide it how, you wanna kiss the girl" Ron lifted his face up to realize he was on a level with a few of Hermione's... well, workrobes, but beneath the workrobes...
"Bloody hell." He whispered quietly, his gaze slowly travelling up to her face, flushed about as pink as his was, but her eyes were open and huge with surprise.
"Ron?" She ventured quietly.
"Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Float along
Listen to the song
The song say kiss the girl"
His eyes darkened and Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat, only dimly aware of their House continuing to sing in the background and curious faces closing in on herself and Ron. The only face she was aware of was the one that was steadily rising to meet her own.
"Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Music play
Do what the music say
You wanna kiss the girl"
Harry and Ginny exchanged conspiratory glances, eyes sparkling. For the moment, any angst between them had been forgotten in the excitement.
Fred crouched down, a few feet away from the couple. "You've got to kiss the girl"
George stepped down onto the bench, one long leg still on the table."Why don't you kiss the girl-"
"You gotta kiss the girl" Hermione's eyes drifted closed and Ron's hand rose to cup her face oh-so-gently....
"Go on and kiss the girl..." Unfortunately, the moment George stepped fully off the table, it started to sway and Hermione barely had time to process as Ron suddenly slid into her and both went tumbling off the bench, followed a variety of more or less full plates of food and about 3 glasses of pumpkin juice.
George shrugged when half the House looked at him with wide eyes. "What?"
My reviewers!
Sakura Cowgirl - *giggles* Don't hurt yourself. :-p wow, that's a disturbing thought. Hmmm.. I'll take it under consideration, but who would we get to sing it? What is Sakura from?
supergirl - Thank you! Next... the twins, I think. Haven't decided what song, even though the course is pretty clear after them.
sasori - *curtsies* Many thanks. What does sasori mean? Japanese, I assume?
Purple & B-chan - *eyes widen* Wow. Ok. Not everyday you get poked with a pencil. A sharpened one at that. *laughs* I would love to give you more of Draco, but I believe the rest of the Great Hall needs tending to and the Gryffindors might mob me enmass if I let him star. And besides, I'm trying to keep his ego in check, a difficult task without letting him dominate the canvas. Oh no. Draco is not allowed anywhere near my muse. He tends to seduce the damn thing. *muse protests* Shut up and eat your cookie.
stormyfire - *flushes* Aw shucks.
Moonlady - Oh, you have to read them! Really, you do. At least the last one. (4th) That's really the best, and the one that hooked me. Tom Felton is adorable, isn't he? *looks sheepish* He's fifteen! Really. Stop giving me those looks. Only 3 years my junior. By the time he gets to the 7th movie, I'll be totally not cradle robbing lusting after him. QUIET.
Vera - Yes, that was more than two. And this ... still more than two. Franklin education!
SilverStarlightAngel - You came back! I'm really flattered you remembered.my story. *laughs* Well, you know, Pansy was rather insistent. Draco? Jealous? *grins* Maybe, but I couldn't fit it in this chapter.
Hannah - Thank you! If you have an interest in HP funny fics, you should check out Revenge of the Killer Plot Bunnies, by StrangerWithMyFace (great writer).... she's hilarious.
TomoyoDadouji - Ok, this is another Japanese looking name that I feel rather stupid not knowing the derivation of.
Thank you, bye! :-p