Meet You There
Chapter Nine – Breathless
The daylight's fading slowly
But time with you is standing still
I'm waiting for you only
The slightest touch and I feel weak
I cannot lie, from you I cannot hide
And I'm losing the will to try
Can't hide it, can't fight it
So go on, leave me breathless…
"Here he comes, finally!"
Hermione turned around as Ginny had said it, and felt a smile creep across her face as she looked at her famous best friend, who was wearing his new Fcuk shirt and a pair of khakis. His hair was still a bit wet and messier than ever before as he continued to pointlessly run his hands through it, unsuccessfully attempting to fix his messy main. He sat down opposite her, his shirt quickly attracting Ron's attention.
"Bloody hell mate, where'd you get that!!?"
Hermione found herself thinking about how adorable Harry looked when he laughed, as he and Ron started to roar with laughter over his silly shirt.
She was quickly shaken out of her thoughts however as Kate nudged her, "You're staring Hermione" she muttered out of the corner of her mouth, smirking to herself as she took a sip of her juice.
A faint tinge of pink rose up on Hermione's cheek, "No I'm not, I just…I...uh…" she stammered, what had she been doing?
Kate snickered, "Its all right Hermione, I would too if I wasn't with Seamus here." She said in her southern accent, grinning at the boy next to her, who smiled back and put his arm around her, unaware of what they were talking about.
"Erm…anyways, how about we get to know each other better?" Hermione asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation away from this awkward and somewhat confusing subject.
Kate knew what she was doing, but decided to let it go, "Okay sure" she said, putting down her fork.
Hermione smiled, looking relieved, "All right so…how did you and Seamus meet if you're from the states?"
Kate smiled at Seamus, and looked back at Hermione, "Well a while ago, our teachers told us about a type of pen pal program they were working on..." She started, "They said you could write to a witch or wizard who went to a school called Hogwarts in England. I thought it sounded kind of interesting, so I signed up for it…"
Hermione nodded, "…and Seamus was your pen pal" she finished for her.
"Exactly" Kate said happily.
"Yes I thought about getting involved in that program, but I already had Viktor as a pen pal so I decided not to" she said, Ron's head whipping around to glare at her from where he'd been listening to the conversation.
"You're still writing to him eh? How is old Vicky?" he said teasingly, but was visibly annoyed by this topic. Hermione rolled her eyes and ignored him.
"Well how come you moved to England? Surely not for Seamus!" Hermione said laughing.
"Hey!" Seamus said pretending to be offended.
Kate laughed, "In a way it was because of him actually, from his letters it sounded like Hogwarts was a much better school than mine. And I've never been to England before, I thought it'd be fun" she explained.
Hermione's looked slightly sceptical, "You're whole family moved just for you?" she asked, surprised.
"Oh no of course not, I came here by myself" she answered laughing, "I'm just staying at Hogwarts for my last two years. Most likely I'll have to go home for the summer"
"Oh I see, wow I don't think I could ever leave, I don't think I could live without my friends with me all the time" she said, clearly glancing at Harry and he smiled back at her.
"Me neither"
"Yeah well, I didn't get along with too many people at my old school anyway" Kate said casually.
"What school did you go to?" Ginny asked Kate, while Ron was still looking extremely disgruntled about the news that Hermione was still writing to Krum, and Harry hid a smirk. He knew Krum wouldn't be getting in the way of anything, so it didn't bother him.
"The Southern States Magic Academy" she answered promptly. "It's in Alabama."
Harry looked at her in interest, "Alabama? They've got one of the top Quidditch teams in America!" he said, and everyone looked at him strangely.
"How'd you know that?" Ron and Seamus said at the same time, while Ginny and Kate looked curious, but Hermione smiled knowingly.
"I read it in a book Hermione gave me" he said simply, looking at her.
"Are you any good at Quidditch?" Ron asked, and she blushed lightly
"Well…I suppose I…" she stammered but Seamus butt in.
"She's fantastic, I've seen her!" he said, looking at his girlfriend proudly.
"Excellent" Harry said, looking happy, "Maybe you can be on the team this year, we need a new chaser…three actually." He said, laughing.
"That'd be great!! I just hope I'm in Gryffindor…" she said, her eyes lighting up, she clearly adored Quidditch.
"I'm pretty sure you will be." Hermione spoke up abruptly.
"You think so?" she replied looking curious.
"Yup I do…I'm not sure why, I just have a feeling." Hermione answered, smiling and reaching to pick up the pitcher of juice, just as Harry did. Their hands touched for a slight second, but they pulled away as if they'd been shocked. Harry looked at her strangely, as she looked around herself awkwardly.
"Er…you take it first." He said, not looking at anyone, and picking at his scrambled eggs with his fork.
Hermione's face was flushed as she poured herself a glass, and Ron spoke up, "What on earth is going on between you two?!" he asked loudly, and they both their heads shot up.
"Nothing" they both said at the same time.
Ginny, Kate and Seamus smirked as Ron frowned, "I don't think its n…" he started looking a bit angry, but Mrs. Weasley had just come flouncing up to them.
"Time to go!"
Ron stopped talking, and was quickly distracted as he heard Ginny talking about how excited she was to see Dean again.
"Bloody Hell Ginny! You only saw him yesterday!" he said angrily, but she simply ignored him, and walked off with Hermione, who smiled at Harry over her shoulder.
Harry smiled back, but it faltered as Ron looked at him, "What?" he said innocently.
Ron looked at him suspiciously, "Nothing…" he said, walking ahead, and Harry rolled his eyes at Seamus and Kate, who were behind him.
By the time they were all gathered together outside, the Knight Bus had already showed up.
"Mr. Weasley and I will pick you 6 up in three hours all right?" she told the group, and they nodded.
Ron started towards the steps but Harry held him back, "Ladies first, Ron" he said jokingly, gesturing for Hermione, Ginny and Kate to get on the bus.
Ron looked at him as if he had three heads, while the girls giggled, "You're so cute Harry" Kate said, as she walked past him up the steps. Seamus snorted, and followed his girlfriend, with a laughing Ron and Harry behind him.
"I don't know why I always look forward to that" Seamus said as they walked out of the last shop in Diagon Alley. "It's never any fun."
They'd just finished buying all their books and supplies, and Dean had joined them.
"It was fun to see Kate get her wand though" Hermione said.
They all laughed, "Yes that Mr. Ollivander is definitely very…interesting" Kate said smiling.
"We still have half an hour before mum and dad are coming back to get us." Ginny spoke up as she checked her watch.
"What do you want to do?" Harry said, looking around.
"We could just take the Knight bus back early" Hermione suggested.
"Nah, I'm out of money, we might as well wait for my parents" Ron said, after he'd checked his wallet.
"I know something we could do…" Kate started.
"What?" Ron asked curiously.
"We could play hide and go seek" she said shrugging, "I know it's kind of childish but it's usually pretty fun".
Dean laughed again, "It is actually, I play it all the time with my little cousins"
"What exactly is it?" Ron asked.
"You don't know what hide and go seek is?!" Kate asked incredulously.
"Er…I don't think so" he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
Harry laughed, "Yes you do Ron, we played it once over at your house…remember? We hid from you and you had to look around the house to find us." he explained.
"Oh yeah!!" Ginny said suddenly, apparently she hadn't remembered either "That was so fun!"
Ron nodded, "Yeah it was…except when you scared the living daylights out of me, when I found you!" he said to Harry, and he and Hermione laughed.
"You should've seen your face!" Harry said chuckling.
Hermione grinned, "Priceless" she added.
"Well I say we play then!" Seamus said, smiling at Kate, "Good idea"
She smiled at him happily, "Thanks…so who's going to be it?"
Ginny and Dean were holding hands and looked like they had planned on hiding as a pair. Kate and Seamus stood in a similar fashion and they'd both chorused, "Not it!" before anyone could say anything.
"Erm…" Harry muttered, standing closer to Hermione, hoping Ron would volunteer.
"Oh fine, I'll be it" Ron said, rolling his eyes.
Kate grinned, "Thanks Ron, you're a good sport" she said, "Count to…100"
Ron nodded, "Ah well, it'll be fun as long as the lot of your promise not to freak me out again"
Harry and Hermione laughed together, "We promised Ron, we won't"
"Good…all right I guess the boundaries will be from the Leaky Cauldron…er…to that shop" he said pointing to a small used book store half way down the street. They all spoke their agreement, and ran off together the moment Ron covered his eyes and started to count.
Dean and Ginny disappeared into the Magical Menagerie, as Kate and Seamus flew into Fortescue's. Harry and Hermione ran down the street together, looking around for a place to hide.
"How bout in there?" Hermione said, gesturing towards Flourish and Blotts.
"Yeah all right" Harry said quickly, "Hurry"
They bolted through the door, quickly moving to stand behind a book case near the back of the store.
"You know, I'm not too sure this is a very good place to hide Harry" Hermione said quietly.
"Well Ron can't be done already can he?"
Apparently he could. Harry cursed as he saw Ron, Dean and Ginny come through the front door, "Shit" he muttered.
Hermione laughed at how seriously he seemed to be taking it, but looked around for a place to hide all the same.
"In here!" she whispered quickly, as she pulled Harry into what had appeared to be a closet.
Well it wasn't exactly a closet; it was more like an extremely small space in which nothing could possibly fit. Harry closed the door, and realized that this was going to be rather awkward, he tried to put more distance between himself and Hermione, but it wasn't working out too well. To make things worse, it was absolutely pitch black.
Hermione swore under her breath and he started to laugh quietly at the predicament they were in. Clearly she wasn't amused as he felt her hand cover his mouth. He shut up immediately.
"There has to be a bloody light in here" she muttered, feeling around. She felt a chain hanging from the ceiling and pulled it hopefully, but unfortunately it appeared to be covered in filth and they couldn't see much more of what they could before. Harry looked down at her, and could just partly see her face.
"That worked well" Harry said laughing.
Hermione couldn't help but smiled at the ridiculous situation, but she was starting to feel worried about what she might do, being so close to Harry like this.
"Well this is just great isn't it" she said quietly.
"Could be worse." Harry said, feeling the familiar feeling swoop over him. He was quickly becoming delirious and felt rather light headed, he couldn't think of anything else except what he wanted to do to Hermione at that very moment. He couldn't care less what Ron, or anyone would think if they barged in on them snogging. He had a sort of mad urge to kiss her, to touch her…anything. He couldn't resist it, and every logical thought in his mind drifted away as he looked at her.
Hermione smiled to herself as she felt the butterflies in her stomach, wanting to believe that Harry was feeling the same.
She looked up at him to answer but was startled as she saw the look in Harry's eyes. It wasn't the usual friendly, smiling look that normally resided in those dazzling emerald eyes when he looked at her…there was something else. Though she could hardly see, it was clear that his eyes were filled with such an intense look of desire that she gasped. She desperately wanted to say something but found herself becoming breathless as she felt one of Harry's strong arms wrap around her small waist, bringing her even closer towards his body, his eyes never leaving hers.
This had to be a dream, it couldn't possibly be happening…he was leaning in…and so was she!! What the hell was she doing? 'He's your friend Hermione, stop it!'
But Hermione pushed every opposing thought out of her mind as she closed her eyes and found that she wanted it just as badly as he appeared to. When had this happened? Why was she doing this…why was HE doing this?! It was like some irresistible force was driving her towards him…she felt her knees go weak as Harry's lips hovered over hers…she was trembling.
Suddenly the door burst open, Hermione yelped in surprise and they jumped apart, hitting their heads hard on the wall. Harry swore loudly, rubbing the back of his head and Hermione flushed to the roots of her hair. Ron grinned happily at finding them, stupidly unaware of what he'd almost walked in on. But Ginny had a mischievous look on her face, and Dean was half smirking, looking like he was trying not to laugh.
"Found ya!!" Ron yelled happily.
Harry glanced at Hermione, and found that the feeling had not vanished. He would've kissed her right there, in front of everyone, but Ginny had spoken up, "So are you two going to stay in there all day looking at each other?" she said, her eyes filled with laughter, "Or can we actually go find Kate and Seamus?"
Harry glared at her, and helped a still blushing Hermione squeeze out of the tiny space, feeling tingly all over as he touched her, his face feeling very hot.
"Okay, let's go find the other two!" Ron said, grinning, completely oblivious to Dean and Ginny's smirks, and Harry and Hermione's awkward glances. They all followed him, Dean and Ginny muttering to each other, grinning and occasionally throwing looks at Harry and Hermione.
Harry still couldn't help himself; he kept glancing at Hermione, unable to keep his eyes off her. But whenever he did this, she seemed to be looking at him as well, and they'd both turn away immediately.
Ginny looked back at them once when they did this and rolled her eyes, "Er, hold up guys I have to go to the loo, Hermione you coming?" she told rather than asked as she looked at her pointedly, but Hermione wouldn't have it.
"No thanks Gin, I'm fine" she said, knowing what Ginny would surely be talking about if she went with her.
"Hermione" she said again, giving her a look, "Please?"
Hermione knew what she was doing; and she was probably going to be angry with her if she didn't go. She sighed and gave in, following a now smiling Ginny down the road towards the Leaky Cauldron, leaving the boys behind to find Kate and Seamus.
They walked in silence, Hermione desperately wanting to turn back. They reached the pub, and Hermione was quickly pulled to sit down at the nearest table.
"Okay Hermione, tell me everything, and don't leave a single thing out" Ginny said grinning.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Nothing happened Ginny! We were just hiding." She said, knowing it wasn't exactly the whole truth.
So, it seemed, did Ginny. "Don't lie" she said simply, smirking.
Hermione sighed, "I don't really know what happened Ginny…" she said, putting her head in her hands.
The excited red head's expression changed, as she looked sort of sympathetically at her. "Just explain it to me, and then we can figure out what it all meant" She said softly.
Hermione looked up at her eager friend, "Well, we were hiding from Ron in Flourish and Blotts, right? And then we saw the three of you coming in…so I dragged Harry into what I thought was a closet." She said, laughing lightly along with Ginny. "There was barely any light, and we were so close together…I just started feeling like I…I don't know Ginny, I couldn't think straight" She said quietly.
Ginny opened her mouth to say something, but Hermione kept going.
"…I couldn't believe it Gin! You should've seen the way he was looking at me…like he was desperate to just…" she flushed pink, "I can't describe it, he's never looked at me that way…but before I knew it his arm was around my waist, and I felt like I didn't even care what happened, it didn't matter why he was doing it…"
Ginny was looked her, extremely interested, and urged her to go on. "He was going to kiss me and I knew it…but I wasn't stopping it Gin! I wanted it to happen…I really did." she was staring at the salt shaker, imagining it was Harry. "Of course you're stupid brother had to come in then. Although, I'm half glad he did, things would be so complicated if we got involved like that…" she sighed looking rather disappointed.
"Well that's settles it Hermione, you two want to be with each other obviously so why don't you do it?" she said, a smile upon her face.
Hermione looked at her incredulously, "He's my best friend Gin!"
Ginny smiled, "Those are the best type of relationships 'Mione" she said wisely.
"Yeah, but…Ginny that can't happen…I mean I don't even know how he feels…there could be plenty of other reasons to kiss me" even as she said it she thought it was a bit ridiculous.
Unfortunately, right when Ginny was about to speak again, Ron, Dean, Seamus, Kate and Harry came through the back door.
"Hey girls, we found them!!" Ron said grinning. Ginny looked annoyed at being interrupted, while Hermione glared at him.
"Merlin Ron!! You have the worst timing!" she shouted, but couldn't help glance at Harry as she said this. He looked at the ground, smiling, his hands in his pockets. She almost let out a grin herself, but felt like being annoyed with Ron, so she stalked off to the washroom instead. Ginny quickly followed her, grinning mischievously at Harry.
Ron looked at both of them strangely, "Girls" he muttered.
I'm evil I know, you probably all want to kill me because they were sooo close and then they didn't do it!! I really wanted them to kiss too actually, but I can't let them yet! It'd ruin my plans for the story… so hope you liked it please review! The song at the beginning is "Breathless" by The Corrs.