Winning over Mr. Green Eyes.
By Aldesina
Chapter 2
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Disclaimer: I own nothing!
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The delicious smells of cookies, ice cream, and baked goods greeted Hermione's nose as she walked into the ice cream parlor. Why is it muggles don't have places like this" Old fashioned, cheap and really really good treats, and for some reason a muggle ice cream store was never as spotless. That's because they use magic to clean up here you ninny, she unconsciously told herself inside her head.
"Hermione! Hermione! Over here! What took you so long?" She turned around to see Parvarti and Lavender sitting at a table near the window waving at her.
"Hold on and let me grab an ice cream." She called back at them.
Soon she was sitting at the table with them with her order; white chocolate ice cream with huge fudge brownie chunks, with cherry syrup toppings, chopped nuts, whipped cream, cookie dough bits, and of course, a cherry on top.
"So do you have a plan yet?"
"Didn't you say you'd be scheming all summer?"
"I hope it's a good plan!"
"It'd better be, but in case you don't get Harry, can I go after him Hermione?"
"Don't be ridiculous Lavender, Harry is Hermione's besides, what about Ron, aren't you two going out?" It was true. When their fifth year rolled by, Ron had finally worked up the courage to ask Lavender out on a date. To his delight, she had said yes. A shared glass of butterbeer had led to a picnic on the grounds. A picnic had lead to dinner at Hogsmead. And dinner had lead to romance. To be honest, it had lasted longer then anyone had guessed it would. There had been bets going around the Gryffindor table as to how long it would actually last, everyone lost. The longest time they had given the couple had been six months. So far, it had lasted a year. And to everyone's knowledge it was still going on.
"You two are still going out aren't you?" Hermione asked tentatively
"Well yes off course we're still going out, it's just that well," Lavender started to turn red "I wanted to give you a bit of competition, ya know." Lavender smiled at Hermione mischievously, "Maybe then you'll try harder."
"What?" Hermione almost spit out the bit of her ice cream. "I try very hard, thank you very much."
"Yeah, at school, you try very hard." Parvarti said. "At Harry, you don't make that much of an effort."
"That's not true, I'm just trying to be subtle, that's all."
"Oh please Hermione, let's be realistic here. Snails can find, and obtain their mates faster then you." Parvarti said with a roll of her eyes.
"I found my er, mate?" Hermione asked, she wanted a date with Harry, a relationship even, but lifetime commitment?!?!
"Yeah, and it took you four years to find him, and it's gonna take you another four years to snatch him at this rate. Four years that you just don't have, so…." With that Parvarti and Lavender both pulled out identical make-up boxes.
"We're gonna have to make you over." Lavender continued with a smile.
"NO, absolutely not, nope, don't touch me!" Hermione said hastily as they made a grab for her.
"Please, just a bit of shadow?" Lavender cajoled
"Or at least a bit of lipstick, gloss even! Anything is better then nothing, besides weren't you just telling us that Harry couldn't keep his eyes off you at the Yule ball, and you dressed up and put on make up then."
"No, who told you that?" Hermione asked suspiciously
"Er," The two girls looked nervous,
"Er nobod, er nobody!" Lavender "Uh huh."
"Uh huh, spit it out," Hermione said.
"Well, maybe um, just maybe Susan mentioned something"
"They were no doubtedly referring to Susan Bones, a Hufflepuff also in the same year as them
"And how would Susan know?" Hermione demanded.
"Well her sister is friends with Ginny Weasley, and you know that Ginny always notices what Harry notices, so…" Parvarti said
"Isn't Ginny dating Justin?" Lavender cut in.
"Whatever, the point is, Hermione dear, that he liked you with that look, maybe we should keep that look, when you're on the hunt."
"Hunt?" Hermione asked, then vaguely wondered if every boy that these two girls hooked up with were only pieces of meat.
" Whatever, no, no gloss, no shadow, no nothing."
"Well at least your hair isn't frizz-central anymore." Parvarti said while surveying Hermione up and down with her eyes. Lavender beside her nodding and doing the same thing. That was the one thing about her appearance that made Hermione happy. Her hair no longer had enough frizz and static to provide electricity for a small country. It wasn't ramrod straight and smooth and shiny like Cho's of course, who probably spends all her time on it, Hermione thought darkly. But now it was suitably manageable and settled into waves and curls down her back with a little bit of hair spray.
"Well at least the outfit is ok." Parvarti said she parted the front of Hermione's clothes to get a better look "Although the skirt could be shorter and the front could use a bit of sprucing up, like with a peek hole or two…"
"Stay away from my shirt, stay away from my skirt." Hermione said, she wanted them to approve but the holes in the shirt and the short short skirt was ridiculous, it was already about an inch above knee length, how much higher did they want it?
"Fine, fine, if you don't want Harry to jump you, then don't take our advice" Lavender said with a wave of her hand.
"I don't want Harry to jump me, I want him to like me." Hermione exclaimed.
"He does like you." Parvarti said, patting Hermione's hand and nodding her head "But as a sister." She and Lavender laughed.
"Oh Harry I love you" Parvarti squealed
"Yes Hermione I love you too, my dear sister!" Lavender said intimidating Harry's voice.
"Very funny, very funny, you wait till I tell Ron that you want to date Harry that oughta piss him off real good." Hermione said, eyes narrowed Lavender stopped laughing.
"You wouldn't! It was a joke!"
"And Parvarti, wait till I tell Ginny about that snog session that you had with Justin over Christmas when she went home." Parvarti went still.
"How did you…..?"
"Uh , uh , uh, I have my ways, Hermione winked at them. They just glowered back.
"Fine whatever, anyways, aren't you late with you meeting with Harry?" Lavender smirked
"Yipes!" Hermione jumped up looking at her watch, " Hey wait a minute, I've still got half and hour, why you…" Hermione made a grab for the girl
"No wait stop!" Parvarti said laughing at her, and holding Hermione back from cowering Lavender, "You still have to tell us what you have planed for this year!" That stopped Hermione for a moment.
"I'll tell you later" she said, launching herself again at Lavender,
"No, you will tell us now." Besides, then we can plan to help you." Lavender said, still sitting at the far end of her seat away from Hermione.
"Oh, fine, but it's nothing complex, it mostly involves working with him more in the library, sitting next to him closer at mealtimes. Helping him with homework, supporting him whenever he doesn't understand his homework. Looking over his homework with him, sitting closer to him in class. Doing homework with him more often in the common room rather then going off by myself to the library and sitting closer to him while doing it." Hermione said in a rush, "So what do you think? Will it work?"
The two girls blinked at her
"So you're basically going to make him do homework and sit close to him so he's crowded and irritable?" Parvarti asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, no, I'm doing so much more, I'm also reviewing his homework with him and …………"
"No, all you're doing is sitting uncomfortably close to him while forcing him to do homework." Lavender interrupted.
"Well do you have a better plan?" Hermione said crossing her arms in front of her.
"Yes, in the sixth year we have a project to do. One that we have to do it with a partner, it's in the defense against the dark arts class, and there's also one in art history. From what I hear, most people in the past years have the same partner for both assignments." Parvarti said with a smile.
"But that's also doing homework." Hermione said.
"Hold your horses missy, let me finish. Not only do you have to do research work for these projects, you'll also be allowed to visit places outside of school to work on it. For example, if you pick a Yetti demon to study and research, you could go to China to study it." Parvarti said
"That means alone time with Harry," Lavender said " Lots of, lots of alone time"
"But what about Ron? Surely, Ron will want to work with Harry and then where the hell will I be?" Hermione moaned
"Oh for God's sake Herm, what do you think I am? Chopped Liver?" Lavender asked.
"Eh?"
"Hello! Ron'd better work with me," Lavender said, "Otherwise I'm gonna go have a snogfest with someone else."
"Thank you!!" Hermione said throwing her arms around Lavender, "You're the best!"
"And you're late!" Parvarti said shoving Hermione toward the door, " Go!"
"Alright! See you guys back at school!" Hermione shouted back to them as she ran towards Flourish and Blotts. The two girls still at the ice cream shop waved at her and smiled. Then Lavender's face began to go sour
"Um, I just thought of something." She said.
"What?"
"Well the thing is, even though our plan will get the two of them alone, Hermione is probably still going to sit disastrously close to Harry and make him do homework." Lavender said. Parvarti dropped her ice cream spoon and looked at her. They both looked a bit green all the sudden.
"Oh shit."