Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K.Rowling, as is every other character and place mentioned in her books

A/N: What can I say, that I haven't said before? Very little, I've had exams, I still have coursework and I've been trying to make my own website in my own time www.angelfire.com/falcon/dudley, for any nice person who wants to boost my dismally low hit counter. Anyway here's the ninth chapter, it was probably rushed, it probably has mistakes, but it's the best I can offer you at the moment. The trip to the Dursleys is the funny scene to watch out for, other than that this is a rather H/H chapter.

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'Well our work here is done' George smirked in his younger brother's direction as he packed away the now infamous lie detector

'But if any of you want an order form for some of our products, then form an orderly queue over here' Fred gestured to the far corner of the common room and was knocked over as all the students stampeded jostling for the best places in line, leaving only Ron, Harry and Hermione behind

'Well Harry, I'm delighted to say I told you so. But I need to get a place in line' Ron laughed as he walked away. It did seem doubtful that he would need to queue for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products when his own brothers had invented them, but he knew his two best friends needed to talk

'Don't I feel stupid' Harry muttered mostly to himself, his hair was now even messier than usual due to the vast number of times he'd run his hand through it in the last five minutes trying to get his head round what had just happened

'Why?' Hermione asked, her sharp ears had not missed a word

'I never noticed that my best friend was besotted with little old me' Harry batted his eyelashes and giggled modestly in a scarily accurate imitation of Parvati, he was working on the old theory of: when in doubt, make jokes

'Oh honestly, you know that every girl in this school thinks your gorgeous, including me. However that doesn't mean I'm hopelessly in love with you, or want to date you or even to kiss you' Hermione snapped frowning looking (understandably under the circumstances) rather peeved

'Ouch you've dinted my pride. But I'm proud to know I'm the only guy you fancy' Harry puffed his chest out in his show of pride

'Far from it. At that particular moment you were the person I fancied, but there are moments when Malfoy is rather fanciable. But it doesn't mean I want to shag him senseless'

'Oooo my poor ears, stop this mental torture, I didn't need to hear that' Harry groaned, trying hard to stop disgusting mental images from invading his mind

'Which part?' Hermione inquired, grinning at Harry's discomfort

'All of it. I cannot believe you compared me to ferret boy' Harry complained bitterly

'Just proving my point that you're merely my good looking friend and I'm not looking for anything more than that' Hermione shrugged

'That's cool. I'm just happy you finally admitted I'm so fanciable, otherwise I'd have to question both your sanity and your eyesight' Harry bragged as Hermione rolled her eyes at his arrogance and decided that now would be a perfect time to re-unite the 'dream team' by joining Ron

And from a distance, on the surface it looked as though things had worked out fine, Harry had made jokes and Hermione had made sarcastic calm comments, they'd both seemed completely normal and at ease about what had just happened. But Harry had been surprised that when Hermione had said that she didn't want to date him, his gut had twisted and he'd felt almost downcast. In fact it had been startling, he'd given little thought to dating anyone for the last few months, he'd certainly given no thought to dating Hermione, or at least he didn't think he had. Now he thought carefully about it, he remembered thinking about her more often than he normally did; maybe it had been a sign of his true feelings, or maybe he was reading too much into it. But it was indisputable that now the thought of dating her was firmly in his head, the idea seemed very appealing to him, very appealing indeed.

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A couple of days later all the trio were uncharacteristically apart, Hermione was presumably in the library, Ron was explaining the virtues of the Chudley Cannons to an unconvinced Dean, Harry who had tired of Cannons talk many years ago was attempting to help Neville with Charms, but in truth he was more of a hindrance. Just as Neville was finally about to reach breaking point and whack Harry round the head with the heaviest book he could find, his attention was diverted by somebody entering the common room in a hurry.

That somebody was Hermione, who walked over to Ron in what would have been a casual manner, if it hadn't been for her red face and quick glances over her shoulder. Dean thankful of an distraction, escaped from Ron's side, and Hermione slid into his empty seat looking distracted

'You know Terry Boot?' Hermione asked Ron, without a word of greeting

'That Ravenclaw prefect?' Ron asked looking puzzled, he vaguely knew the members of other houses but had never before found the need to discuss them

'Yeah' Hermione confirmed

'What about him?' Ron asked in confusion, trying to remember if it was Terry or a different Ravenclaw who played Quidditch, he was fairly sure it was Terry

'Just wondering what you thought of him' Hermione said, once again trying to act casual

'Seems alright I guess. Ask Harry, he plays Quidditch against him'. In truth Ron knew next to nothing about Terry, but if it was important enough for Hermione to ask about then he was going to try and help her

'No it's alright' Hermione went red again and quickly picked up the nearest book, trying to appear busy

'You might as well ask' Ron pointed out with a shrug

'No, honestly, it doesn't matter now' Hermione insisted

'But Harry won't mind, here I'll ask him for you' Ron tried to be the kind of helpful friend that Hermione would want and quickly scanned the room looking for Harry

'No, Ron don't' Hermione gave a hiss of horror as she realised that Ron was preparing to shout across the room

'Hey Harry, what do you think of that Terry Boot from Ravenclaw?' Ron yelled to his best friend as Hermione buried her head deep inside the book so her face couldn't be seen. Neville saw his chance of getting rid of his unhelpful helper and insisted that Harry go talk to his friends

'Seems nice enough, not the best beater in the world, but he tries hard and he plays fair, which is more than can be said for some players. Why?' Harry, like Ron had done previously, thought this was a very peculiar question to be asking

'Hermione asked' Ron explained with a shrug to show that he didn't understand any better than Harry did

'Why?' Harry asked the cover of the book, which was hiding Hermione from him

'Just curious' came the muffled reply from Hermione, which sounded rather squeaky

'A bit of a strange thing to wonder about. Hermione you should know you can't lie to us, what's the real reason' Harry asked firmly but gently as he removed the book from Hermione's hands with an amused grin on his face

'Fine I'll tell you, but don't overreact' Hermione said with a sigh, wishing she had never begun this conversation

'We aren't little kids' Ron said indignantly, honestly, was it like him to ever overreact?

'Exactly, what's the worst that could happen?' Harry agreed and staring intently at Hermione to get his answer

'Just don't say I didn't warn you. Terry asked me out' Hermione muttered looking a bit sheepish and very apprehensive. She'd been alone in the library when Terry came over and asked her a few questions about rumours he'd heard concerning her, Harry and the lie detector (the news had spread round the entire school in mere minutes). And upon discovering she was still unattached he'd asked her out, he'd stuttered, she went red, he went red, she'd turned him down as gently as she could, he'd gone even redder and quickly left. Now she wondered if she'd been too rash, she didn't know the guy, there had been no real reason to turn him down, well, no reason she was willing to admit

'That bastard, you can't date him, he's an idiot' Harry cried in outrage, looking scandalised

'He's a completely immature prat' Ron added, with a scowl on his face, he'd never trusted that Boot character, he'd always seemed shifty

'He's a right poncy git, always prancing around' Harry continued, he could carry on all night with reasons why Hermione shouldn't date him

'I knew you two would do this, you always overreact about everything I do, it's so immature' Hermione said angrily stamping her foot as she stormed off in disgust at her friends behaviour. It wasn't like she wanted to date Terry, he was sweet enough, he just wasn't Harry. Although in her current state of mind she wasn't overly keen on the idea of dating him either

'You don't think maybe we did overreact just a bit?' Harry asked Ron as he watched Hermione's retreating back; it wasn't that he didn't want her to be happy; he just didn't want her to associate with people like that Terry

'No way, Boot is bad news' Ron declared vehemently, in fact the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that Terry was in fact in Voldemort's inner circle and had a mysterious sixth toe that proved his evil powers

'Precisely, he's just not right for her. We didn't do anything wrong' Harry nodded his head having thoroughly convinced himself that he knew what was best for Hermione

'Harry my friend, I don't think anything we've ever done is wrong' Ron gave a grin as he settled back to arrange another game of chess so that he could once again beat Harry

If Harry had needed some kind of sign to convince him that he should ask Hermione out, then surely this was it, he wouldn't just be doing it because he fancied her, he'd be doing it to save her from gits like Terry Boot.

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By the next week the thought of dating Hermione still hadn't left him, he'd found himself studying spells for his upcoming duel with Draco and suddenly found himself wondering what Hermione would do if he kissed her. It was really rather disconcerting, and certainly very distracting; so he resolved to ask her out as though it was a simple spur of the moment thing. He put the plan into place, one evening when they were in the common room doing homework

'Hermione, I think we should date' Harry announced casually as he put the finishing touches to his Charms essay, Hermione suddenly started making weird choking noises as she looked up in alarm

'I beg your pardon' she gasped, to put it mildly she was shocked and to put it less mildly she had had a strong suspicion that this was some weird twisted dream and Parvati would wake her in mere moments to beg help on some problem or other.

'I think we should date' Harry repeated very slowly and emphasising the word 'date' just in case Hermione wanted to pick out the key words

'I heard the first time' Hermione snapped trying to decide the best way to deal with this, she decided on the brushing it off as an everyday event routine: 'You've had the entire female population of the school quite literally throwing themselves at you, date one of them'

'Not the entire population, you didn't, and I want you' Harry was grinning lopsidedly at her, apparently enjoying her discomfort.

What he didn't realise was just how close Hermione had been at the start of term to joining the mass hoards of girls who stalked Harry at every turn.

Luckily Hermione had regained her common-sense very quickly after realising that while Harry was good-looking, all it proved was that she had eyes not that she should fall madly in love with him, and besides he was her best friend and that was more important to her than anything else.

'Don't be stupid, date Parvati, she doesn't have bushy hair' Hermione reprimanded Harry by pointing out her own defects as she felt confident this would knock sense into him

'I like your hair' Harry replied, brushing aside her argument as he reached over and curled a few strands round his finger apparently fascinated by it

'Well date Padma; she sometimes curls her hair, that looks bushy from a distance. Plus she doesn't have freckles, I do' Hermione pulled back out of Harry's reach causing him to scowl at her

'I like freckles, I have them too, we could count each others' Harry suggested grinning slyly and stroking his finger along Hermione's jaw line momentarily causing her to lose concentration

'Ginny has freckles' Hermione said in more of a half-hearted whisper than anything else rather distracted by watching Harry, until she pulled herself back together and shook her head slightly

'They're not as good as yours and besides she's dating Dean' Harry pouted as Hermione failed to fall for his oh so obvious charms

'You could steal her away' Hermione suggested very enthusiastically, now she was what she considered a safe distance from been distracted by Harry

'I'm sure I could, but they're happy together and Dean's a friend' Harry explained, although his explanation was a strange mix of the old loyal Harry who wanted everyone to be happy and the new one who was over-confident

'Well I'm your friend too' Hermione said rather unsure of what the point of this was but deciding she might as well try it anyway

'Yes and I want to date you' Harry explained very patiently as though Hermione simply didn't understand what was going on

'But we've been friends since we were 11, since you saved me from that troll'

'So what, I still want to date you' Harry said failing to see the relevance. He also failed to see the look of annoyance and remembrance come over Hermione's face, which was never going to be a good sign

'In fact, we wouldn't even be friends if you hadn't locked me in a bathroom with a troll, you and Ron would still hate me' Hermione said as though she'd suddenly experienced a life changing revelation and now saw Harry in a completely different way. This wasn't what Harry had expected to happen and he saw that he needed to deal with this, before Hermione blew things out of all proportion

'Clearly we need to sort this out. We never hated you to begin with and there is no way we could not have been friends. Us three were always meant to be friends' Harry said meaning every word he said

'Before the troll, you didn't even talk to me' Hermione said stubbornly, her eyes stony and disbelieving

'No and that was our loss, but sooner or later we would have spoken in class or in the common room and we would have become friends, I'm sure of it' Harry spoke clearly and looked directly into Hermione's eyes

'Well -' Hermione said beginning to waver, as she saw the sincerity in Harry's eyes

'Hermione never let it be said that I don't bless the day you and Ron became my best friends, without you two I'd have died many times and never have had a great time at school. If I could pick my family, I'd pick you two any day and you better not forget it' Harry said and those words were all it took to convince Hermione that it didn't matter how they became friends; now that they were, she should just cherish it. For while it was true that coming to Hogwarts and making friends had rescued Harry, it had also rescued Hermione from a life with no meaning and anything that led her to Harry couldn't be all bad

'OK' she said quietly, nodding in agreement. Harry smiled at her in relief and grabbed his stuff preparing to depart for bed

'By the way, you're going to give into a date with me. I guarantee it' Harry paused briefly at the stairs to give Hermione a very cheeky wink before disappearing, leaving her torn between shock and amusement at what had just happened.

So getting Hermione to date him hadn't been as easy as he'd thought it would be, but he wasn't to be deterred, she hadn't rejected him and from talking about her as his friend, he was more convinced than ever that she was his perfect girl

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Harry was wearing a smart white shirt with simple black trousers and his robes open to reveal them, his walk through the common room minutes earlier had left Parvati and Lavender openly drooling. He strode through the corridor with purpose scattering the smaller students in front of him, finally he spotted his target ahead of him and alone

'Fancy going out with me sometime?' Harry flashed his most dazzling smile as he swung round a pillar to get in front of an extremely beautiful young girl carrying piles of books. The girl looked up in surprise, smirked slightly and shook her black hair which had so fascinated Harry

'Harry I only just split up with Roger' Cho Chang informed the young man in front of her, Roger had been her old Quidditch captain and boyfriend for a year, until she'd decided that maintaining a long-distance relationship just wasn't working

'So you could go out with me, right?' Harry said looking very self-confident as passing students sent Cho some very envious looks

'No, definitely not' Cho said determinedly,

'Admit it, you dig me' Harry smiled lazily and made a great show of slowly taking his robe off to reveal the tight shirt underneath, causing some passing third years to walk straight into the wall from shock. Cho however, looked decidedly unimpressed and merely raised an eyebrow at his antics

'You're mighty attractive, but I'm not one of your bimbo fans who swoons just because you smile at them. Nor will I be the eye candy on your arm in your attempt to make Hermione jealous'. Cho spoke with the wisdom that all Ravenclaws apparently possessed, she had heard the rumours, she'd seen Harry and Hermione together and she could put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4, unlike many members of the school

'I don't need to make anyone jealous, girls fall over themselves to just talk to me' Harry said angrily, angry at Cho for not going along with his plan and angry with himself for feeling this way about his best friend

'Ah that's what this is about' Cho exclaimed quietly with a small smile, she'd always liked Harry, she wanted him to be happy and she was fairly sure he was finally figuring out just what it was that would make him happy, and it wasn't her

'What?' Harry asked

'You're angry that the only girl you like, is the only one who seems to be immune to your charms' Cho explained simply and when put like that, Harry couldn't deny it, he gave up his façade and leaned back against the wall in despair

'She just laughs when I flirt with her, does her homework without batting an eyelid whenever I wear my leather jacket even though every other girl is drooling, she's even seen me in my boxers and only commented that I was late for class' he complained, then realising how it had sounded added quickly, 'not that I care'

'Poor Harry, you've got it bad' Cho laughed rather unsympathetically at Harry's predicament

'No I don't' Harry denied on impulse

'Then why were you asking me out?' Cho asked raising an eyebrow in amusement

'I just wanted to, erm, to do, the thing is, I wanted to…….Fine, it was plan B' Harry admitted finally having to laugh a little himself at how feeble he sounded

'I hope you have a better plan for plan C'

'You'll just have to wait and see' Harry said with a wink as Cho walked away, in truth he was now thinking of further plans, after all there was still another 24 letters of the alphabet left, and after that they'd be infinite numbers. No siree, his plans weren't done yet
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With only a day to go before his duel with Draco, Harry decided he needed something to relax himself before the big event, and what better way to relax than by winding up your relatives. Ron had been worrying him with tales of how Snape would have taught Draco every piece of dark magic that he knew, Hermione was trying to convince him that it wasn't too late to back out and Draco was making loud comments whenever he passed about which parts of Harry's body he planned to sever first.

So a trip to the Dursley's would be just what the doctor ordered, Harry waited until the common room was fairly empty that evening before slipping out of the tower, onto the grounds and then running in his animagus form to find a safe spot to summon the knight bus from.

'Alright, alright, stop knocking I'm coming' a very annoyed and flustered Vernon Dursley tied his XXX large dressing gown tightly as he stumbled down the stairs of 4 Privet Drive at about 2 o'clock on the morning of the 1st December little suspecting how terrible a start to the month of Christmas it would prove

'Hello Uncle Vernon' Harry smiled brightly looking rather unsteady on his feet as he stood in the doorway

'What the hell are you doing here boy?' Vernon growled angrily, the previous summer of torment that his nephew had caused was obviously fresh in his mind

'I've brought a friend to visit you' Harry smiled even wider as his words slurred slightly

'What? Who? Why? Where?' Vernon blustered looking visibly scared a he imagined a twenty foot tall Sirius Black leaping out from the bushes and cursing him

'Hello I'm constable Mackenzie, your nephew was picked up in town for being drunk and disorderly' a policewoman who had previously been hidden from view by a very large pot-plant stepped into view just in time to see a rather bony horse like woman appear at the top of the stairs listening intently

'You were what?' Vernon hissed at Harry as his face slowly turned purple, he had already seen his wife watching and was amazed that Dudley hadn't been woken up by the commotion

'The tramps wanted to learn the can-can, she was just jealous that I didn't ask her to dance' Harry protested and looked as though he was considering giving his uncle and the policewoman a quick reminder of how the can-can went, unfortunately for all the neighbours who were peaking through their net curtains Harry's performance was cut short

'We let him off this time, but if there is a next time we will charge him, so please keep him under closer control in future' the constable said managing to maintain a serious outlook even though she was thinking that if she had an uncle like this one, she'd turn to drink as well

'But, but, but, but, but' Vernon stuttered trying to explain how evil Harry was and how he was meant to be at school, however he couldn't get the words out fast enough

'Tut tut Vernie, that's no way to talk in front of a lady' Harry scolded and Mackenzie found it very hide to hide her smile, this boy might be a drunk but he was certainly amusing

'Get in here you. Good day constable' Vernon snapped as he yanked Harry into the house and slammed the door shut. 'What's the meaning of this, you turn up on my doorstep at 2 in the morning, drunk, with the police'

'Fooled you' Harry said in a perfectly clear voice as he doubled over laughing

'You're not really drunk' Vernon hissed as realisation dawned on him and he cursed whatever law it was that had made hitting annoying brats who were children illegal

'No I'm not. I just came to wish you merry Christmas, but then I had to save your good name. Cos your car was involved in a high-speed chase and ended up on the pavement outside a strip club; luckily the police didn't find me there. However that woman did find me in the park talking to a lovely fellow called Barney or something' Harry explained what had happened, and judging from the terrified squeak he heard from up the stairs, he guessed his aunt was listening

'You stole my car' Vernon gasped, unable to believe that even his filthy wizard nephew could do anything so low

'No, I was going to but somebody else beat me to it, so I jumped in for the ride' Harry smiled at his uncle, wondering if looking the colour of boiled beetroot was particularly healthy, he doubted it

'Out, out, get out now' Vernon bellowed, opening the door and pushing Harry through it. Sure enough now that he looked, his garage was wide open and his precious car was gone, he knew that Harry would be no help, he'd have to contact the police in the morning about getting it back

'Oh fine, say merry Christmas to Aunt Petunia from me and I hope Dudley gets home soon' Harry said sticking his hands in his pockets and beginning to trudge up the drive after giving his uncle a cherry wave

'Dudley is home, you fool' Vernon shouted after him with a sneer, determined to get the better of the dratted boy this time. Harry turned at the end of the driveway and had such a devilish look on his face, that it was a surprise he hadn't sprouted horns and a tail

'Oops did I forget to mention that it was Dudley driving the car? Silly me. Don't worry I told the police everything. I hope he makes bail soon' the laughter from Harry that followed this statement could be heard all down the street and would linger in Vernon's ears for many hours to come.

Harry changed into his animagus form as soon as he was out of sight, congratulated himself on an evening's good work and began the journey back to Hogwarts. He never heard Petunia's scream when she realised that her darling Dudders was not in his bed, he never saw the frantic dash down to the police station his aunt and uncle made to find their son and he never got to laugh at Dudley's tears and protestations that he'd only wanted to take the car out for a few minutes but that horrid Harry had forced him to drive into town.

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'You're going to go ahead with this duel aren't you?' Hermione said with a sigh of resignation when she saw him the morning of the much-anticipated duel

'Yes. Wish me luck?' Harry asked smiling

'Good luck' Hermione said after a slight hesitation

'Kiss on the lips for luck?' Harry enquired hopefully

'No' she replied shortly. Harry pouted and Hermione mockingly returned the expression

'You're going to distract me if you pout like that' Harry informed her, wondering if Hermione's hair normally had that many shades of colour in it

'You don't need anymore distractions, I think I'll stay out of your way till after the duel' Hermione said, Harry's head shot upright in alarm, seeing that she was serious and realising that she was probably right, he gave a small smile

'You're going to watch me though?' he asked, looking slightly nervous, though whether this was because of the duel or because Hermione might reject him was unclear

'Of course I am, just make sure you don't get any sort of injury'

'So when I've won, do I get my good luck kiss?' Harry asked grinning once again

'I'll make a note to ask Parvati to give you one' Hermione smirked at him as she left the room and Harry groaned with frustration as she outsmarted him once again. But his resolve was clear, Hermione had to date him, he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

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'Ron I'm going to need your help' Harry said in the final minutes before the time for the duel arrived, he was in an empty classroom with Ron preparing for the contest, Hermione had been true to her word and was no-where in sight

'What for?' Ron asked suspiciously, hoping that it was some plan to knobble Draco before the duel could begin

'I have to convince Hermione that dating me is a good idea, I'll use every cliché in the book if I have to' Harry said determinedly, planning a whole new approach in his mind

'Fair enough, just tell me what you want me to do'

'Not now, first I'll defeat the prat, then I get the girl' Harry's eyes gleamed with passion as he spoke

'What a lovely fairytale' Ron said sarcastically

'You just watch me' Harry gave his wand one last polish and left the room with Ron in close pursuit ready to deal Draco Malfoy the comeuppance he so richly deserved

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There had never been such excitement in the great hall, a large space had been cleared in the middle of the floor and around it crowded every single Hogwarts student eager to see this historic duel. Many of the teachers were also in the hall; McGonagall was attempting to maintain order in the centre of the room, with Harry on one side of her and Draco on the other. After failing to get quiet by shouting, McGonagall let off a large explosion that got everyone's attention

'Now I must remind you that no one else may do any of the spells that you are about to see, in any circumstances other than under the guidance of a fully trained teacher. And now the rules of this duel: No unforgivable curses may be used, neither side may receive any outside help, you are not aiming to injure your opponent and this duel will end when one of you is on the ground for more than 10 seconds. Bow gentlemen' McGonagall commanded and a hush fell over the hall

'Not to injure? You won't be able to walk at the end of this Potter' Draco muttered glaring at Harry as he gave a short bow

'Enough talk Malfoy, let's finish this, well let's finish you' Harry smirked at Draco as he raised his wand

'Three, two, one, begin' McGonagall cried, and the duel was underway at last.

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A/N: Well there you go again, obviously the next chapter will be the duel and possibly a bit more H/H. Thank you to everyone who has previously reviewed and please do keep on reviewing, its about the only thing that keeps me going sometimes. I'll get to work on the next chapter as soon as possible, honestly