I cleaned up the first two chappies, so if things look a bit different,
that's why. No major changes, just spelling checks and grammatical
rearranging
I am sorry to say that this story will NOT be slash. If you want a Harry/Draco Veela story, there are at least fifty of them floating around at the moment. I'd rather be at least slightly original. As to who Harry winds up with? Who knows? I really haven't decided yet. However, it sure is fun reading what the reviewers think I should do. I am always up for suggestions, so by all means, keep suggesting.
On a side note, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. The sheer amount of positive feedback I've gotten has helped me crank out three chapters in three days. Thank you.
And that's all I have to say about that.
ROUND THREE!
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Dear Fleur and Gabrielle,
I'm sorry to have to contact you like this out of the blue, but I am in dire need of help and I believe that you two are the only ones that not only I can trust, but offer the level of help I need. The problem is a little to sensitive to send in a letter, but I would appreciate it if you could come to Hogsmeade this weekend, I'll meet you at the Three broomsticks at a time of your choosing, on Saturday.
Please respond, I don't know who else to turn to.
Harry Potter.
Harry then handed the letter to Hermione for a read-through, making sure that he had accurately portrayed the need he had while not giving out any sensitive information, should the letter be intercepted.
Hermione handed the letter back, nodding her approval. "We had better get going guys, otherwise we are going to be late for Herbology," she stated.
Harry and Ron both grabbed their packs, after double-checking to make sure they had the required materials tucked away. When they exited the dorm room, Harry was immediately swamped with female Gryffindors of all years trying to talk to him at the same time. They formed a circle around him, more or less shoving Ron, Ginny, and Hermione out of the way.
One thing you should know if you wish to survive being a Gryffindor, is that if you must piss off a Weasley, try your very best not to aggravate more than one at a time. The flock of women had just managed to rile the two most ill-tempered of the lot.
"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ron bellowed, and all eyes in the room spun silently to where he was extremely red-faced and heaving with the exertion of breathing, his sister standing next to him in a similar state.
Ginny took a step forward, and the crowd sans Harry subconsciously took a step back. She spoke in a deadly calm voice, which was twice as scary as Ron's outburst. "You will all make way for Harry to get to class." It was a statement, not a question, and she pulled her wand from her robe pocket to punctuate the sentence. "If one of you so much as TRIES to distract him before classes are over for the day, I promise you that you'll live to regret it. I doubt very much that anyone of you could handle myself, my brother, and the smartest witch at Hogwarts alone, could you?"
Following her statement, the collected females began slowly dispersing, looking for something else to do to try and save some face. It seems that Ginny's threat of Harry's friends was potent enough to break through the charm of a Veela.
"Thanks, Gin," Harry breathed out in relief once they were relatively alone again. "I would have been trampled if you and Ron hadn't stepped in." He impulsively reached down and gave her a quick hug in gratitude.
Ginny grunted, actually grunted, and pushed him off. "What did I tell you about touching me?" she whispered exasperatedly.
"Oops, sorry Gin. You know, this is really gonna suck if I can't even touch two of my best friends."
Hermione and Ginny both nodded sadly, before Hermione gestured towards the common room exit with her head, gesturing to them that they leave for class.
"Gin? Will you help protect me during supper tonight?" Harry asked, after seeing how well she handled his 'admirers' just now. He would probably need that help every time he was outside of his dorm room.
Ginny smiled at him, not a lustful smile, but an actual friendly smile. Actually, it was the first friendly smile he had received from a female since his maturation. "Of course, Harry. Just about the entire school knows enough not to piss off one Weasley, let alone two. But you owe me!" she added playfully.
"Of course, of course. I promise you a great Christmas gift this year too, okay?" he added just as Hermione grabbed him by the back of his collar and started dragging him towards their next class.
"C'mon Harry, you were almost late for Defense, we seriously can't be late for Herbology. Let's go!"
"See you at supper, Gin!" Harry hollered walking out the door backward in the tow of his bushy-haired friend. His day was finally beginning to look up.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
"Today," Professor Sprout began, "we will be working in groups of eight, seeing as how we only have the four Shrieking Wall Crawlers to work with. Now, can anyone tell me what this particular plant is used for?"
Immediately, to no one's surprise, Neville's and Hermione's hands shot into the air.
"Mr. Longbottom?" the Professor asked.
"It's l-leaves are a key ingr..edient in the um.. Prophlaxis potion and almost e-e-every l-love potion in existence." Neville stuttered, not because he didn't quite know the information, (he most assuredly did,) but because the shy sixth-year just had trouble speaking in front of crowds.
"Very good, Mr. Longbottom. Five points to Gryffindor. Now, separate into your groups, and make sure you have your earmuffs. While not deadly like the cries of a mandrake, the Shrieking Wall Crawler's wails can and will drive you insane after very short exposure. All we are going to be doing today is pruning off the dead leaves and tendrils. Well? What are you waiting for? Get started!"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron made a beeline for Neville. Even the Great-Know- It-All Hermione had to concede that Neville was even better than her at Herbology, and that it would be the best way to assure her continued position at the top of the year.
Unbeknownst to the Trio, however, was that every female in the class, which were all who qualified for NEWT level Herbology between the four houses, were making a beeline for Harry.
Harry sat at the table next to Neville, Hermione and Ron sat across from them, and there was a rush as sixteen girls tried to fill the four vacant seats at the circular table next to Harry and Hermione.
Hermione actually giggled as at least five of them fell to their bums on the dirt floor. When Harry re-opened his eyes, (he had shut them to avoid watching the disaster) he saw that sitting at the table with them were now Padma Patil, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, and to everyone's surprise, Pansy Parkinson, the sole Slytherin that qualified for NEWT Herbology and actually took the course.
"Class! Please apply your earmuffs, then count to twenty before pruning. We don't want anyone subjected to the screams."
Harry put on his earmuffs right away, having noticed that three of the four non-Gryffindors at the table were trying to catch his eye. He instead looked at the one who wasn't trying to get his attention, Luna.
Luna had the same dreamy expression on her face, gazing placidly at the vine wrapped around a series of poles in the flowerpot directly in front of her. Harry had to wonder if she was affected at all by him, or if she just hid her emotions deep underneath her placid exterior.
Neville reached up with a gloved hand to grasp a dead leaf, pruning shears in the other, and the others took this as their cue to begin the lesson.
The lesson was going more or less smoothly, Harry paying more attention than he almost ever did in Herbology, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked in the direction of whomever tapped him, to see Padma slide a note over to him.
It read: 'Just so you know, I DO know how to brew the Prophlaxis potion.
P.P.'
Harry looked up to her face, to see her give him a drawn-out wink. He, in return, gave her one of his non-committal grins, and turned his attention back to the plant. When he was sure she wasn't looking, he quickly scribbled out a note to Hermione asking what the Prophlaxis potion was.
Hermione looked up at him and mouthed 'Why?', to which he slid Padma's note over to her. She immediately began laughing into her left hand, while writing a reply to him with her right.
'It's a birth control potion,' was all the return note said.
'Great,' he thought, 'even if they can't talk to me they are still hitting on me.'
Professor Sprout, who had been walking between the four tables, was now approaching their table. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that the girls wouldn't try any hanky panky as long as she was that close.
Instead of walking to where there was an open spot to observe, the plump Professor placed her left hand on Harry's left shoulder, leaning into him so she could observe over his right, pressing her ample bosom into his wings and back.
Harry tried his best to keep his calm, but when she started looking back and forth, rubbing her.. *ahem* into him, he put his face into his hands. Peeking between his fingers, he spotted Ron watching the display with thinly veiled amusement.
He dropped his hands, and mouthed to his red-haired best friend 'Kill me now.'
He then looked around the table to see if anyone else had noticed her unprofessional display. Hermione and Neville had their full attention focused on the plant. He looked over to Luna, who wasn't looking at anything in particular, just playing with one of the blue feathers she had worn in her hair that day. He then risked a glance at Parkinson, who licked her upper lip slowly and suggestively at him.
Continuing down the Table, he saw Susan, whom he had got to know a bit better in the D.A., and as soon as he made eye-contact with her, she leaned forward, and he noticed that she had undone the top three buttons of her blouse, giving him an eyeful of deep, dark cleavage. Breaking his gaze away from the milky orbs, he then continued on to Padma, who was seated to the left of him, and as soon as she saw him looking at her, she discreetly put her hand on his thigh and started inching her way closer and closer to his crotch.
He grabbed her wrist, gently, to stop her exploration while he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He then gave her a playfull 'no' shake of the head and put her hand back into her own lap, hopefully sparing her feelings. However, when he shook his head, he felt the professor's breasts wobble against the rear sides of his head, reminding him that she was still there.
He quickly scratched out a note that asked her to help Parkinson understand what was going on and handed it to the Hufflepuff Head-of-House.
Now that he had rid himself of the older woman, occupying the Slytherin at the same time, he was almost in the clear. Padma had thankfully kept her notes and hands to herself, and Luna was still daydreaming. That just left...
Susan.
Susan had yet to lean back, and Harry couldn't resist but to stare at the crevice between her breasts. The girl was, to put it mildly, well-endowed. The second she caught him looking, she started squeezing her arms together, pushing her breasts up and creating even more cleavage, before letting them back down and starting over again. Harry was entranced, having had little to no female attention before today, but was thankfully pulled out of his tunnel vision by a balled up wad of parchment hitting him in the side of the head.
He looked over to the direction that the paper bludger came from, and found Hermione glaring at him. He mouthed a 'sorry' and a 'thank-you' to her, which seemed to cheer her up a little. Harry refocused his attention back to the plant a few seconds before everyone took his or her earmuffs off.
"Homework for Wednesday, read up on the care and properties of this plant. We are going to be transplanting them into bigger pots that day. Mr. Potter, if I could see you after class please?"
Harry groaned, not wanting to even think about the horrors that awaited him now. "Wait ouside the greenhouse for me, please?" he pleaded to his friends, who after half a minute of making him sweat, agreed that they would.
"Mr. Potter, may I call you Harry?" she began, and Harry warily nodded his acceptance. "I'd like to apologize for my actions earlier. I don't really know what came over me, and I can assure you that it will not happen again." The older woman looked almost ready to cry.
Harry gave her his warmest smile, and replied "It's quite alright, Professor. Weird things have been happening quite a lot around me today. I know that it's not your fault, and I won't hold it against you."
She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Thank you Harry, and again, I really am so sorry."
"It's no problem. Was there anything else, Professor?"
"No, just my apology. Go on, I'm sure your friends are waiting for you."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
Harry exited the Greenhouse, utterly confused as to how the woman could have been so entranced by him one minute, then in complete control of herself the next. He broke out of his thoughts and found Ron and Hermione looking to him, each trying and failing to contain their laughter. Harry didn't even try to respond.
He just walked past them, and they followed finally able to stop laughing after a few minutes.
"So, what did the PROFESSOR want to talk to you about?" Hermione chided, knowing full well how uncomfortable he must have felt.
"Actually, she wanted to apologize for her behavior, and assure me that it wouldn't happen again."
He actually took three more steps before he noticed that his friends weren't following him any longer.
He turned, and found them both looking confusedly at him.
"That's it? From the way all the girls in there were acting towards you, I would have thought you'd run out of there half-naked trying to keep your 'virtue'!" Ron exclaimed, to which Hermione elbowed him hard in the side. "Well, almost all of the girls."
That statement brought up a question that had been in the back of his mind since they had been at the tower last. "Hermione, why weren't you affected? I mean, you were acting just like you do normally!"
Hermione blushed. "Well, part of it is that I keep telling myself that the feelings aren't real, but most of it is that I... well.. I was kind of thinkingofsomeoneelse," she spat out in too much of a hurry for Ron to catch, but Harry caught all of it.
"So maybe Professor Sprout has a significant other, like a husband or a boyfriend or something.." Harry theorized.
"Or a girlfriend," Ron added helpfully
Harry clapped both of his hands over his eyes. "Thank you, oh great red one, for that splendiferious mental image. I fear I shall never eat again," he over-dramatized. "Are you guys going to come to the Owlry with me, or am I going alone?"
"Um, sorry mate, but I kind of need to talk to Hermione alone, so I guess you are on your own." Hermione looked at Ron quizzically, but nodded anyway.
"All right then, I guess I'll see you guys when I get back, wish me luck in not getting mobbed!" he spoke a lot more jovial than he felt, before they parted ways, Harry to the Owlry, and the other two back to Gryffindor he assumed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
"I need you to take this letter to Fleur Delacour, okay Hedwig?" He quietly asked the snowy white owl perched on his arm. She hooted her understanding, before nuzzling his cheek with the top of her head and flying off out the window, towards France he assumed.
He stood watching until his first friend was out of sight, before turning to leave the Owlry. At least that was the plan.
Blocking the exit from the Owlry were every teenage man's wet dream. Twins. Large-breasted twins.
"Hi Harry" the Patil twins cooed in unison, each walking up to him and taking a hold of an arm. The only way that Harry could tell the two apart, was that Parvati had a Gryffindor crest on her robes, while Padma had a Ravenclaw crest on hers. At the moment, however, robe decorations were the last thing on his mind.
They steered him out of the smelly tower, giggling to each other, towards an empty classroom two doors down before he even had a chance to protest. One of the twins immediately started kissing him full on the mouth while the other locked the door. He tried to talk them out of it, but all that was audible were the mumbling sounds he was making into the Indian girl's mouth.
While Padma, he guessed judging by her perfume, was trying to wrestle his tongue out of his mouth, Parvati pressed her lips to his neck while groping the back of his trousers. It was getting a little too intimate too fast for Harry, he didn't want them to do anything that they'd regret later. Breaking away from the aggressive sisters, he backed away with his hands up, gesturing for them to stop.
The girls, looking quite disheveled and breathing hard, slowly approached him as lionesses would stalk prey.
"Now ladies, you don't want to do anything that you will regret later, do you?"
"What makes you think that we're going to regret it, Harry?" Parvati asked in a husky voice.
Padma, meanwhile, just held up a bottle of a purple potion with yellow streaks in it. "I told you I can brew the Prophlaxis potion," she spoke while grinning ear-to-ear.
Harry's jaw dropped. "Shit..." he managed to gasp out before pulling out his wand and undoing the lock on the door. He sprinted all the way down to the Gryffindor tower, running up to Marge and wheezing the password to her, being out of breath as he was.
Once Marge opened up, he ran up into his dorm room, spotting Hermione sitting on Ron's bed crying, Ron nowhere to be seen.
For the second time that day, Harry put up every silencing and locking charm he knew on his dorm room, before sitting next to 'Mione and putting his arm around her.
"What's wrong 'Mione? Why are you so upset?" he asked as unobtrusively as he could.
"Nevermind me, Harry, why are you all out of breath and sweaty? And WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR NECK!" she screamed.
"Patil twins cornered me in the Owlry. I barely got away, but nothing major. Now what's wrong with you?"
Hermione wiped the tears away angrily before glaring out of the sides of her eyes at a point away from Harry. "Ron.. Ron asked me out to Hogsmeade."
"But that's good, isn't it?" Harry asked, confused as to what was going on.
"I might as well tell you, by this time tomorrow it is going to be all over the school anyway..." she trailed off.
"What?"
"I don't. like Ron that way, Harry."
"And you are worried about that being all over school why?"
She stood up and began to pace, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You don't get it. I don't like ANY boys that way... I'm gay, Harry."
To say Harry was shocked would have been an understatement. He was positive that Hermione had feelings for Ron. "How... how long have you known?"
She laughed, a sharp, bitter sounding tone. "I've always known, Harry. Why do you think that my only friends are boys? I've always been afraid of slipping up and coming-onto the other girls, letting my 'secret' out in the process. Some Gryffindor I am," she got out before putting her face back into her hands, the sobs restarting as though they had never left.
Harry gathered her into a hug, and she wrapped her arms around him as a lifeline. "So, when you were thinking of someone else, who were you thinking of?"
She mumbled something incoherent into his chest.
"Sorry?" he pulled back. "What was that?"
"My girlfriend. OH! but you can't tell anyone else, Harry James Potter. She's not out yet either."
"You can trust me, Hermione. I'm not like Ron. As much as I like the guy, he has a tendency to run his mouth when he's angry."
She didn't even crack a smile. 'She must really be mad at Ron,' he thought.
"It's Luna, Harry."
The pieces started to fall into place for Harry now. "So that's why she wasn't even trying to look at me, yet still fought to get at our table. She was there for you, not me, wasn't she?"
Hermione nodded into his chest.
"Look, Hermione, whoever wants to antagonize you has to get through me first. None of the straight girls will be willing to make me angry, the lesbians have no reason to get on your case, and as for the guys, well if being a lesbian makes you partially immune to me, then the gay guys probably won't want to piss me off either. The straight ones, though, I guess I'll just have to remind them that I did duel Voldemort and survived. It'll be okay, 'Mione, I still love you as the sister I never had, and now you can be yourself, your TRUE self."
Hermione cried even harder at how good of a friend Harry was being, somehow managing to tell him that she loved him back through her tears.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
HA-HA! No Ron and 'Mione either! Bet you didn't see that one coming!
Stay tuned for the next installment, same bat-ti. wait, I'm not that consistent with updates..
Well, same bat-cha... Whoa, not that either, really.
Anywho, we'll see what kind of madness I can come up with next chapter.
Until next time...
I am sorry to say that this story will NOT be slash. If you want a Harry/Draco Veela story, there are at least fifty of them floating around at the moment. I'd rather be at least slightly original. As to who Harry winds up with? Who knows? I really haven't decided yet. However, it sure is fun reading what the reviewers think I should do. I am always up for suggestions, so by all means, keep suggesting.
On a side note, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. The sheer amount of positive feedback I've gotten has helped me crank out three chapters in three days. Thank you.
And that's all I have to say about that.
ROUND THREE!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
Dear Fleur and Gabrielle,
I'm sorry to have to contact you like this out of the blue, but I am in dire need of help and I believe that you two are the only ones that not only I can trust, but offer the level of help I need. The problem is a little to sensitive to send in a letter, but I would appreciate it if you could come to Hogsmeade this weekend, I'll meet you at the Three broomsticks at a time of your choosing, on Saturday.
Please respond, I don't know who else to turn to.
Harry Potter.
Harry then handed the letter to Hermione for a read-through, making sure that he had accurately portrayed the need he had while not giving out any sensitive information, should the letter be intercepted.
Hermione handed the letter back, nodding her approval. "We had better get going guys, otherwise we are going to be late for Herbology," she stated.
Harry and Ron both grabbed their packs, after double-checking to make sure they had the required materials tucked away. When they exited the dorm room, Harry was immediately swamped with female Gryffindors of all years trying to talk to him at the same time. They formed a circle around him, more or less shoving Ron, Ginny, and Hermione out of the way.
One thing you should know if you wish to survive being a Gryffindor, is that if you must piss off a Weasley, try your very best not to aggravate more than one at a time. The flock of women had just managed to rile the two most ill-tempered of the lot.
"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ron bellowed, and all eyes in the room spun silently to where he was extremely red-faced and heaving with the exertion of breathing, his sister standing next to him in a similar state.
Ginny took a step forward, and the crowd sans Harry subconsciously took a step back. She spoke in a deadly calm voice, which was twice as scary as Ron's outburst. "You will all make way for Harry to get to class." It was a statement, not a question, and she pulled her wand from her robe pocket to punctuate the sentence. "If one of you so much as TRIES to distract him before classes are over for the day, I promise you that you'll live to regret it. I doubt very much that anyone of you could handle myself, my brother, and the smartest witch at Hogwarts alone, could you?"
Following her statement, the collected females began slowly dispersing, looking for something else to do to try and save some face. It seems that Ginny's threat of Harry's friends was potent enough to break through the charm of a Veela.
"Thanks, Gin," Harry breathed out in relief once they were relatively alone again. "I would have been trampled if you and Ron hadn't stepped in." He impulsively reached down and gave her a quick hug in gratitude.
Ginny grunted, actually grunted, and pushed him off. "What did I tell you about touching me?" she whispered exasperatedly.
"Oops, sorry Gin. You know, this is really gonna suck if I can't even touch two of my best friends."
Hermione and Ginny both nodded sadly, before Hermione gestured towards the common room exit with her head, gesturing to them that they leave for class.
"Gin? Will you help protect me during supper tonight?" Harry asked, after seeing how well she handled his 'admirers' just now. He would probably need that help every time he was outside of his dorm room.
Ginny smiled at him, not a lustful smile, but an actual friendly smile. Actually, it was the first friendly smile he had received from a female since his maturation. "Of course, Harry. Just about the entire school knows enough not to piss off one Weasley, let alone two. But you owe me!" she added playfully.
"Of course, of course. I promise you a great Christmas gift this year too, okay?" he added just as Hermione grabbed him by the back of his collar and started dragging him towards their next class.
"C'mon Harry, you were almost late for Defense, we seriously can't be late for Herbology. Let's go!"
"See you at supper, Gin!" Harry hollered walking out the door backward in the tow of his bushy-haired friend. His day was finally beginning to look up.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
"Today," Professor Sprout began, "we will be working in groups of eight, seeing as how we only have the four Shrieking Wall Crawlers to work with. Now, can anyone tell me what this particular plant is used for?"
Immediately, to no one's surprise, Neville's and Hermione's hands shot into the air.
"Mr. Longbottom?" the Professor asked.
"It's l-leaves are a key ingr..edient in the um.. Prophlaxis potion and almost e-e-every l-love potion in existence." Neville stuttered, not because he didn't quite know the information, (he most assuredly did,) but because the shy sixth-year just had trouble speaking in front of crowds.
"Very good, Mr. Longbottom. Five points to Gryffindor. Now, separate into your groups, and make sure you have your earmuffs. While not deadly like the cries of a mandrake, the Shrieking Wall Crawler's wails can and will drive you insane after very short exposure. All we are going to be doing today is pruning off the dead leaves and tendrils. Well? What are you waiting for? Get started!"
Harry, Hermione, and Ron made a beeline for Neville. Even the Great-Know- It-All Hermione had to concede that Neville was even better than her at Herbology, and that it would be the best way to assure her continued position at the top of the year.
Unbeknownst to the Trio, however, was that every female in the class, which were all who qualified for NEWT level Herbology between the four houses, were making a beeline for Harry.
Harry sat at the table next to Neville, Hermione and Ron sat across from them, and there was a rush as sixteen girls tried to fill the four vacant seats at the circular table next to Harry and Hermione.
Hermione actually giggled as at least five of them fell to their bums on the dirt floor. When Harry re-opened his eyes, (he had shut them to avoid watching the disaster) he saw that sitting at the table with them were now Padma Patil, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, and to everyone's surprise, Pansy Parkinson, the sole Slytherin that qualified for NEWT Herbology and actually took the course.
"Class! Please apply your earmuffs, then count to twenty before pruning. We don't want anyone subjected to the screams."
Harry put on his earmuffs right away, having noticed that three of the four non-Gryffindors at the table were trying to catch his eye. He instead looked at the one who wasn't trying to get his attention, Luna.
Luna had the same dreamy expression on her face, gazing placidly at the vine wrapped around a series of poles in the flowerpot directly in front of her. Harry had to wonder if she was affected at all by him, or if she just hid her emotions deep underneath her placid exterior.
Neville reached up with a gloved hand to grasp a dead leaf, pruning shears in the other, and the others took this as their cue to begin the lesson.
The lesson was going more or less smoothly, Harry paying more attention than he almost ever did in Herbology, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked in the direction of whomever tapped him, to see Padma slide a note over to him.
It read: 'Just so you know, I DO know how to brew the Prophlaxis potion.
P.P.'
Harry looked up to her face, to see her give him a drawn-out wink. He, in return, gave her one of his non-committal grins, and turned his attention back to the plant. When he was sure she wasn't looking, he quickly scribbled out a note to Hermione asking what the Prophlaxis potion was.
Hermione looked up at him and mouthed 'Why?', to which he slid Padma's note over to her. She immediately began laughing into her left hand, while writing a reply to him with her right.
'It's a birth control potion,' was all the return note said.
'Great,' he thought, 'even if they can't talk to me they are still hitting on me.'
Professor Sprout, who had been walking between the four tables, was now approaching their table. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that the girls wouldn't try any hanky panky as long as she was that close.
Instead of walking to where there was an open spot to observe, the plump Professor placed her left hand on Harry's left shoulder, leaning into him so she could observe over his right, pressing her ample bosom into his wings and back.
Harry tried his best to keep his calm, but when she started looking back and forth, rubbing her.. *ahem* into him, he put his face into his hands. Peeking between his fingers, he spotted Ron watching the display with thinly veiled amusement.
He dropped his hands, and mouthed to his red-haired best friend 'Kill me now.'
He then looked around the table to see if anyone else had noticed her unprofessional display. Hermione and Neville had their full attention focused on the plant. He looked over to Luna, who wasn't looking at anything in particular, just playing with one of the blue feathers she had worn in her hair that day. He then risked a glance at Parkinson, who licked her upper lip slowly and suggestively at him.
Continuing down the Table, he saw Susan, whom he had got to know a bit better in the D.A., and as soon as he made eye-contact with her, she leaned forward, and he noticed that she had undone the top three buttons of her blouse, giving him an eyeful of deep, dark cleavage. Breaking his gaze away from the milky orbs, he then continued on to Padma, who was seated to the left of him, and as soon as she saw him looking at her, she discreetly put her hand on his thigh and started inching her way closer and closer to his crotch.
He grabbed her wrist, gently, to stop her exploration while he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He then gave her a playfull 'no' shake of the head and put her hand back into her own lap, hopefully sparing her feelings. However, when he shook his head, he felt the professor's breasts wobble against the rear sides of his head, reminding him that she was still there.
He quickly scratched out a note that asked her to help Parkinson understand what was going on and handed it to the Hufflepuff Head-of-House.
Now that he had rid himself of the older woman, occupying the Slytherin at the same time, he was almost in the clear. Padma had thankfully kept her notes and hands to herself, and Luna was still daydreaming. That just left...
Susan.
Susan had yet to lean back, and Harry couldn't resist but to stare at the crevice between her breasts. The girl was, to put it mildly, well-endowed. The second she caught him looking, she started squeezing her arms together, pushing her breasts up and creating even more cleavage, before letting them back down and starting over again. Harry was entranced, having had little to no female attention before today, but was thankfully pulled out of his tunnel vision by a balled up wad of parchment hitting him in the side of the head.
He looked over to the direction that the paper bludger came from, and found Hermione glaring at him. He mouthed a 'sorry' and a 'thank-you' to her, which seemed to cheer her up a little. Harry refocused his attention back to the plant a few seconds before everyone took his or her earmuffs off.
"Homework for Wednesday, read up on the care and properties of this plant. We are going to be transplanting them into bigger pots that day. Mr. Potter, if I could see you after class please?"
Harry groaned, not wanting to even think about the horrors that awaited him now. "Wait ouside the greenhouse for me, please?" he pleaded to his friends, who after half a minute of making him sweat, agreed that they would.
"Mr. Potter, may I call you Harry?" she began, and Harry warily nodded his acceptance. "I'd like to apologize for my actions earlier. I don't really know what came over me, and I can assure you that it will not happen again." The older woman looked almost ready to cry.
Harry gave her his warmest smile, and replied "It's quite alright, Professor. Weird things have been happening quite a lot around me today. I know that it's not your fault, and I won't hold it against you."
She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Thank you Harry, and again, I really am so sorry."
"It's no problem. Was there anything else, Professor?"
"No, just my apology. Go on, I'm sure your friends are waiting for you."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
Harry exited the Greenhouse, utterly confused as to how the woman could have been so entranced by him one minute, then in complete control of herself the next. He broke out of his thoughts and found Ron and Hermione looking to him, each trying and failing to contain their laughter. Harry didn't even try to respond.
He just walked past them, and they followed finally able to stop laughing after a few minutes.
"So, what did the PROFESSOR want to talk to you about?" Hermione chided, knowing full well how uncomfortable he must have felt.
"Actually, she wanted to apologize for her behavior, and assure me that it wouldn't happen again."
He actually took three more steps before he noticed that his friends weren't following him any longer.
He turned, and found them both looking confusedly at him.
"That's it? From the way all the girls in there were acting towards you, I would have thought you'd run out of there half-naked trying to keep your 'virtue'!" Ron exclaimed, to which Hermione elbowed him hard in the side. "Well, almost all of the girls."
That statement brought up a question that had been in the back of his mind since they had been at the tower last. "Hermione, why weren't you affected? I mean, you were acting just like you do normally!"
Hermione blushed. "Well, part of it is that I keep telling myself that the feelings aren't real, but most of it is that I... well.. I was kind of thinkingofsomeoneelse," she spat out in too much of a hurry for Ron to catch, but Harry caught all of it.
"So maybe Professor Sprout has a significant other, like a husband or a boyfriend or something.." Harry theorized.
"Or a girlfriend," Ron added helpfully
Harry clapped both of his hands over his eyes. "Thank you, oh great red one, for that splendiferious mental image. I fear I shall never eat again," he over-dramatized. "Are you guys going to come to the Owlry with me, or am I going alone?"
"Um, sorry mate, but I kind of need to talk to Hermione alone, so I guess you are on your own." Hermione looked at Ron quizzically, but nodded anyway.
"All right then, I guess I'll see you guys when I get back, wish me luck in not getting mobbed!" he spoke a lot more jovial than he felt, before they parted ways, Harry to the Owlry, and the other two back to Gryffindor he assumed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
"I need you to take this letter to Fleur Delacour, okay Hedwig?" He quietly asked the snowy white owl perched on his arm. She hooted her understanding, before nuzzling his cheek with the top of her head and flying off out the window, towards France he assumed.
He stood watching until his first friend was out of sight, before turning to leave the Owlry. At least that was the plan.
Blocking the exit from the Owlry were every teenage man's wet dream. Twins. Large-breasted twins.
"Hi Harry" the Patil twins cooed in unison, each walking up to him and taking a hold of an arm. The only way that Harry could tell the two apart, was that Parvati had a Gryffindor crest on her robes, while Padma had a Ravenclaw crest on hers. At the moment, however, robe decorations were the last thing on his mind.
They steered him out of the smelly tower, giggling to each other, towards an empty classroom two doors down before he even had a chance to protest. One of the twins immediately started kissing him full on the mouth while the other locked the door. He tried to talk them out of it, but all that was audible were the mumbling sounds he was making into the Indian girl's mouth.
While Padma, he guessed judging by her perfume, was trying to wrestle his tongue out of his mouth, Parvati pressed her lips to his neck while groping the back of his trousers. It was getting a little too intimate too fast for Harry, he didn't want them to do anything that they'd regret later. Breaking away from the aggressive sisters, he backed away with his hands up, gesturing for them to stop.
The girls, looking quite disheveled and breathing hard, slowly approached him as lionesses would stalk prey.
"Now ladies, you don't want to do anything that you will regret later, do you?"
"What makes you think that we're going to regret it, Harry?" Parvati asked in a husky voice.
Padma, meanwhile, just held up a bottle of a purple potion with yellow streaks in it. "I told you I can brew the Prophlaxis potion," she spoke while grinning ear-to-ear.
Harry's jaw dropped. "Shit..." he managed to gasp out before pulling out his wand and undoing the lock on the door. He sprinted all the way down to the Gryffindor tower, running up to Marge and wheezing the password to her, being out of breath as he was.
Once Marge opened up, he ran up into his dorm room, spotting Hermione sitting on Ron's bed crying, Ron nowhere to be seen.
For the second time that day, Harry put up every silencing and locking charm he knew on his dorm room, before sitting next to 'Mione and putting his arm around her.
"What's wrong 'Mione? Why are you so upset?" he asked as unobtrusively as he could.
"Nevermind me, Harry, why are you all out of breath and sweaty? And WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR NECK!" she screamed.
"Patil twins cornered me in the Owlry. I barely got away, but nothing major. Now what's wrong with you?"
Hermione wiped the tears away angrily before glaring out of the sides of her eyes at a point away from Harry. "Ron.. Ron asked me out to Hogsmeade."
"But that's good, isn't it?" Harry asked, confused as to what was going on.
"I might as well tell you, by this time tomorrow it is going to be all over the school anyway..." she trailed off.
"What?"
"I don't. like Ron that way, Harry."
"And you are worried about that being all over school why?"
She stood up and began to pace, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You don't get it. I don't like ANY boys that way... I'm gay, Harry."
To say Harry was shocked would have been an understatement. He was positive that Hermione had feelings for Ron. "How... how long have you known?"
She laughed, a sharp, bitter sounding tone. "I've always known, Harry. Why do you think that my only friends are boys? I've always been afraid of slipping up and coming-onto the other girls, letting my 'secret' out in the process. Some Gryffindor I am," she got out before putting her face back into her hands, the sobs restarting as though they had never left.
Harry gathered her into a hug, and she wrapped her arms around him as a lifeline. "So, when you were thinking of someone else, who were you thinking of?"
She mumbled something incoherent into his chest.
"Sorry?" he pulled back. "What was that?"
"My girlfriend. OH! but you can't tell anyone else, Harry James Potter. She's not out yet either."
"You can trust me, Hermione. I'm not like Ron. As much as I like the guy, he has a tendency to run his mouth when he's angry."
She didn't even crack a smile. 'She must really be mad at Ron,' he thought.
"It's Luna, Harry."
The pieces started to fall into place for Harry now. "So that's why she wasn't even trying to look at me, yet still fought to get at our table. She was there for you, not me, wasn't she?"
Hermione nodded into his chest.
"Look, Hermione, whoever wants to antagonize you has to get through me first. None of the straight girls will be willing to make me angry, the lesbians have no reason to get on your case, and as for the guys, well if being a lesbian makes you partially immune to me, then the gay guys probably won't want to piss me off either. The straight ones, though, I guess I'll just have to remind them that I did duel Voldemort and survived. It'll be okay, 'Mione, I still love you as the sister I never had, and now you can be yourself, your TRUE self."
Hermione cried even harder at how good of a friend Harry was being, somehow managing to tell him that she loved him back through her tears.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
HA-HA! No Ron and 'Mione either! Bet you didn't see that one coming!
Stay tuned for the next installment, same bat-ti. wait, I'm not that consistent with updates..
Well, same bat-cha... Whoa, not that either, really.
Anywho, we'll see what kind of madness I can come up with next chapter.
Until next time...