Chapter Three
The Fun Begins
A/N: Damn. Three chapters in the same day. I have no life, but I do have school tomorrow, so I gotta go 2 sleep soon. Anyway, enjoy!!
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He read it over again.
This couldn't happen. Not now.
The first thought in Harry's mind was that it was unreal. Voldemort had just returned to power. There was no way he would be stupid enough to wage war on the world while he was so weak.
Shouldn't he be inflitruating our government or something? Harry thought. Dumbledore said ten years! Ten! Not one! There's no way he'd be cocky enough to think he can take on the most—
There was a knock on his door. Harry swung his feet over to the side of his bed, but did not intend to stand up.
"Harry!" Hermione's voice.
Something clicked in Harry's head.
O God.
"Harry are you still in there? It's almost noon!"
O God, not now.
Harry's heart was pounding. He crumpled the letter in his hand and held it tightly in his fist.
The door creaked slightly, and Hermione's bushy head poked out from behind the door.
"There you are," Hermione said cheerily. "Why didn't you say anything, Harry? I thought you were still asleep or something." She sat on Ron's bed—the bed next to Harry's—and rubbed her forearms. "It's chilly in here, isn't it."
"Yeah," Harry said absently, clenching the paper even tighter in his fist. He looked at the ground, feeling Hermione's eyes on him, reading his face. "You know, you're not really supposed to be in a dorm room alone with a boy. Besides… you're a prefect—shouldn't you be… prefecting or something right now?"
O God, now she thinks something's wrong, Harry thought. She's gonna ask.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione said, suddenly frowning. "Something's wrong—I can tell."
Harry smiled internally at his ability to predict her so well.
"I suppose I really do have to tell you, don't I?" Harry said. Hermione looked confused. "Hermione…"
She looked anxious.
"What is it, Harry? What's happened?"
Harry paused. Hermione looked worried.
"Well, how do I put this?" he said.
Harry paused for a second, then looked back up at Hermione with an odd grin on his face. An ironic sort of grin.
"Are you secretly dating anyone, Hermione?"
She laughed.
"No," she answered.
"Not any of the students? No affairs with teachers? That bartender at the Hog's Head?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No. Of I'm course not," she said, smiling and wrinkling her nose. "Why? Are you?"
Harry shook his head.
"No."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Then why would you ask such a silly question? Is there some rumor going around?"
Harry shook his head and breathed deeply, his blood still pounding in his ears.
"Hermione," he began slowly. "Hermione do you remember that deal we made at the end of last year?"
Hermione blinked. "Yes. I remember." Harry nodded.
Hermione blanched. Her eyes widened.
"O God."
Exactly, thought Harry.
"O God, Harry, what are we going to do?" Hermione said. "We're too young! I don't even think it's legal!"
"I know, and—"
"—and Dumbledore said ten years—
"—and—"
—and you don't love me! This is just insane. Are we really going to do this? And—"
"—yeah, and—"
"—I mean, we have to don't we? We're magically bound—but we'll have to tell someone, won't we? Who would we tell? What if this is against school rules? Will we get kicked out? I don't personally think that Dumbledore would want—"
"HERMIONE!"
She fell silent.
"First of all," Harry started slowly, "is the contract breakable?"
Hermione, breathing deeply, shook her head.
Harry bit his lip. Hermione sprawled out on her back on Ron's bed.
"What will happen to us if we don't marry?"
Hermione winced and shook her head.
"Nothing good, that's for sure."
"But what would happen?"
Hermione paused.
"A number of things. You are given two weeks after the date that your contract specifies before the consequences begin." She thourhg for a moment, and then started again. "We could become physically bound to each other. I heard of a few people whose spell forbade them from going further than a foot away from each other until they fulfilled their vow." Hermione turned onto her side. "This other couple broke out in the most horrible, itchy green boils. Each boil had a face, and it yelled in Spanish if it was scratched."
Harry laughed. "That's not too bad."
Hermione closed her eyes.
There was a long silence. Hermione sighed and said, "Well, what do you want to do, then?"
She opened her eyes and looked at Harry, waiting for an answer.
"I guess we've got to go through with this."
"Yeah."
Silence again.
Hermione sat up again. "How?" she asked.
"What?"
"How are we going to do this? Who do we tell?"
"Dumbledore, I guess."
Hermione nodded.
"How are we going to do it?"
"Do what? Tell him?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No, get married. How are we going to get married?" Hermione blushed. Harry knew that she was thinking the same thing as him. If the two of them got married, the whole wizarding world would know. "Should we do it in secret?"
"I dunno, " said Harry. "But we have two weeks to figure it out.
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A/N: Kinda silly story, I know. Tell me what u think. Sorry this chapter's mostly dialogue. I'll edit later and add some description. Just REVIEW. NOW.
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