Chapter Two: The Great Gryffindor Plan.
A note: I have been far too engrossed in caring for yet another plot bunny that is proving to be of a particularly demanding disposition. As a consequence I'd pushed this poor little mite away. It snivelled to itself for a few days, hiding under my bed until my patience with my troublesome creation finally broke. With a fresh mind I'm ready to have another stab at this one. Thank you to the few folks who had nice things to say about chapter one. Here is chapter two!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Almost every one has!" exclaimed Lavender who looked decidedly pale.
"Almost?" questioned Parvati
"Well I wasn't exactly keeping a record you know -it's just a silly game!"
But suddenly it wasn't so silly any more.
"I should go talk to her." This from Harry, who took the last swig from his coffee like a man about to walk the last long mile. "You", he pointed at Ron, then looked fleetingly over everyone else "Come up with something -Anything!"
As he turned to leave the great hall he caught the sharp questioning look of professor McGonagall, but he just shrugged at her, and walked out through the massive doors and headed toward the Gryffindor tower.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"What we need is a plan."
The small group of Gryffindor seventh years crowded round the bottom end of their house table - furthest away from the Head table and the Teachers. In front of them, surrounded by cups of tea, coffee and pumpkin juice and the odd crumb of toast, lay a scrap of parchment that was quickly filling up with names of friends, enemies, housemates, peers, rivals and even, the gods forbid, Slytherin.
"Hannah Abbot!" added Ron. " - Well you never know" he said with a pointed look, and a rather perverted twist on his lips.
"In that case Blaise Zabini!" interjected Seamus with a glint in his eye as he ventured a quick glance over at the Slytherin table.
A unanimous sound of exasperation from the girls of the group bought the boys minds back in to focus, though somewhat begrudgingly.
"I really do not think Hermione is that way inclined, " pointed out Parvati, who had shared a dorm with Hermione since the first year.
"If we are going to do this properly" emphasized Ron "we need to get everyone to do it -and besides, who would have thought Cho would end up with Susan?" he quirked his eyebrows up and the group turned to watch the two girls walking hand in hand out of the hall. - " Especially after the grief she put Harry through in the 5th year."
"Alright!" snapped Lavender, in a shrill little voice that sounded distinctly like Harry's Aunt Petunia. "Point taken." And she added the two girls names to the list.
Over the next twenty minutes, with an increasing amount of help from the younger Gryffindor's (including Ginny Weasley) and even a few Hufflepuffs who had been sitting close enough to overhear what had gone on, the list was completed.
"Every student from the first year to the current seventh year!" announced Lavender, what a smug expression.
"He -"
"Or she!" pointed out Ron, Seamus, Neville and Ernie.
"Has to be here." She said jabbing her finger at the parchment and glowering at the boys disapprovingly
"And anyway.. What would she see in a first year?" The boys were obviously still miffed about the resistance they had met over Hermione's love interest being another female.
"Age has nothing to do with true love." put in one of the Hufflepuffs, obviously a victim of too many romance novels.
Ignoring them all, Lavender, who was actually enjoying taking control for once, carried on
"What we should do now is split the list up so we each have a portion to work with, that way we can cover more ground in a shorter space of time." She waved her wand over the list and it split up in to four separate parchments. " Dean and Parvati - you take A to F, Seamus and Neville you take G to L, Ron, you and Harry will take M to S and Ginny and I will take T to Z."
"But that means we get Malfoy!" Ron spat out the last word like a mouthful of Marmite, but with twice the amount of repulsion.
The others all took a moment to look over their lists
"We get Crabbe!" Parvati winced dramatically.
"And I've got Goyle" said a green looking Neville.
Lavender harrumphed at them "It's nearly time for Class, we have double Potions first thing, so I suggest we all get to work on this AFTER class. Snape will boil us alive if he catches wind of this."
"I hope Harry's had some luck with Hermione," said Ginny, who had a free period first off and was helping her self to a spoon full of honey to put on her porridge. "I'll get to work on our part of the list." she said, tucking the parchment in to her robes.
As the Seventh year trudged out of the hall Dean turned to Lavender and said "You know, if anything ever happens to Hermione I volunteer YOU to take over as the bossy one."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry left the great hall with a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he was absolutely honest with him self, he couldn't actually think of anyone who could be considered Hermione's perfect match. It wasn't that she was ugly -far from it! And it wasn't as if she was dull. He and Ron had found her to be great fun to be around and very useful on their yearly escapades. It was just that anyone in Hermione's life felt that they were second best to her books.
Upon entering the wizarding world, the Muggle born students soon learnt that they were swimming around in a very limited gene pool
All one had too do was look at the likes of Draco Malfoy and his cronies to realise this!
Harry thought that it would not be very difficult to meet every Witch and Wizard in existence, so the likelihood of Hermione's future spouse being resident at Hogwarts castle was nearing ninety-nine percent certain.
At the beginning of the year Hermione had dated one of the Ravenclaw prefects, but as smart and good looking as he was, he just didn't meet Hermione's expectations of a lover, and the two parted ways on good terms. Harry knew things were different for Girls. He knew his friend would need some one as addicted to learning as her self, but also some one of strong enough character and good humour to help bring her out of her self. She needed a meeting of minds. Not a clash of hormones.
As Harry reached the door to the common room he braced him self for tears, anger, maybe even violence! That is if Hermione's display in the Great Hall was anything to go by. Cautiously he swung open the portrait and stepped in to the common room.
A/N I've read a fair few arguments regarding the gender of one Blaise Zabini. In the story, said character is Female, just in case you were wondering about Mr. Finnigan's roving eye. Reviews please? I'm quite happy to come up with endless excuses for why things are written the way they are : )
A note: I have been far too engrossed in caring for yet another plot bunny that is proving to be of a particularly demanding disposition. As a consequence I'd pushed this poor little mite away. It snivelled to itself for a few days, hiding under my bed until my patience with my troublesome creation finally broke. With a fresh mind I'm ready to have another stab at this one. Thank you to the few folks who had nice things to say about chapter one. Here is chapter two!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Almost every one has!" exclaimed Lavender who looked decidedly pale.
"Almost?" questioned Parvati
"Well I wasn't exactly keeping a record you know -it's just a silly game!"
But suddenly it wasn't so silly any more.
"I should go talk to her." This from Harry, who took the last swig from his coffee like a man about to walk the last long mile. "You", he pointed at Ron, then looked fleetingly over everyone else "Come up with something -Anything!"
As he turned to leave the great hall he caught the sharp questioning look of professor McGonagall, but he just shrugged at her, and walked out through the massive doors and headed toward the Gryffindor tower.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"What we need is a plan."
The small group of Gryffindor seventh years crowded round the bottom end of their house table - furthest away from the Head table and the Teachers. In front of them, surrounded by cups of tea, coffee and pumpkin juice and the odd crumb of toast, lay a scrap of parchment that was quickly filling up with names of friends, enemies, housemates, peers, rivals and even, the gods forbid, Slytherin.
"Hannah Abbot!" added Ron. " - Well you never know" he said with a pointed look, and a rather perverted twist on his lips.
"In that case Blaise Zabini!" interjected Seamus with a glint in his eye as he ventured a quick glance over at the Slytherin table.
A unanimous sound of exasperation from the girls of the group bought the boys minds back in to focus, though somewhat begrudgingly.
"I really do not think Hermione is that way inclined, " pointed out Parvati, who had shared a dorm with Hermione since the first year.
"If we are going to do this properly" emphasized Ron "we need to get everyone to do it -and besides, who would have thought Cho would end up with Susan?" he quirked his eyebrows up and the group turned to watch the two girls walking hand in hand out of the hall. - " Especially after the grief she put Harry through in the 5th year."
"Alright!" snapped Lavender, in a shrill little voice that sounded distinctly like Harry's Aunt Petunia. "Point taken." And she added the two girls names to the list.
Over the next twenty minutes, with an increasing amount of help from the younger Gryffindor's (including Ginny Weasley) and even a few Hufflepuffs who had been sitting close enough to overhear what had gone on, the list was completed.
"Every student from the first year to the current seventh year!" announced Lavender, what a smug expression.
"He -"
"Or she!" pointed out Ron, Seamus, Neville and Ernie.
"Has to be here." She said jabbing her finger at the parchment and glowering at the boys disapprovingly
"And anyway.. What would she see in a first year?" The boys were obviously still miffed about the resistance they had met over Hermione's love interest being another female.
"Age has nothing to do with true love." put in one of the Hufflepuffs, obviously a victim of too many romance novels.
Ignoring them all, Lavender, who was actually enjoying taking control for once, carried on
"What we should do now is split the list up so we each have a portion to work with, that way we can cover more ground in a shorter space of time." She waved her wand over the list and it split up in to four separate parchments. " Dean and Parvati - you take A to F, Seamus and Neville you take G to L, Ron, you and Harry will take M to S and Ginny and I will take T to Z."
"But that means we get Malfoy!" Ron spat out the last word like a mouthful of Marmite, but with twice the amount of repulsion.
The others all took a moment to look over their lists
"We get Crabbe!" Parvati winced dramatically.
"And I've got Goyle" said a green looking Neville.
Lavender harrumphed at them "It's nearly time for Class, we have double Potions first thing, so I suggest we all get to work on this AFTER class. Snape will boil us alive if he catches wind of this."
"I hope Harry's had some luck with Hermione," said Ginny, who had a free period first off and was helping her self to a spoon full of honey to put on her porridge. "I'll get to work on our part of the list." she said, tucking the parchment in to her robes.
As the Seventh year trudged out of the hall Dean turned to Lavender and said "You know, if anything ever happens to Hermione I volunteer YOU to take over as the bossy one."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry left the great hall with a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he was absolutely honest with him self, he couldn't actually think of anyone who could be considered Hermione's perfect match. It wasn't that she was ugly -far from it! And it wasn't as if she was dull. He and Ron had found her to be great fun to be around and very useful on their yearly escapades. It was just that anyone in Hermione's life felt that they were second best to her books.
Upon entering the wizarding world, the Muggle born students soon learnt that they were swimming around in a very limited gene pool
All one had too do was look at the likes of Draco Malfoy and his cronies to realise this!
Harry thought that it would not be very difficult to meet every Witch and Wizard in existence, so the likelihood of Hermione's future spouse being resident at Hogwarts castle was nearing ninety-nine percent certain.
At the beginning of the year Hermione had dated one of the Ravenclaw prefects, but as smart and good looking as he was, he just didn't meet Hermione's expectations of a lover, and the two parted ways on good terms. Harry knew things were different for Girls. He knew his friend would need some one as addicted to learning as her self, but also some one of strong enough character and good humour to help bring her out of her self. She needed a meeting of minds. Not a clash of hormones.
As Harry reached the door to the common room he braced him self for tears, anger, maybe even violence! That is if Hermione's display in the Great Hall was anything to go by. Cautiously he swung open the portrait and stepped in to the common room.
A/N I've read a fair few arguments regarding the gender of one Blaise Zabini. In the story, said character is Female, just in case you were wondering about Mr. Finnigan's roving eye. Reviews please? I'm quite happy to come up with endless excuses for why things are written the way they are : )