(HELLO EVERYONE! I'm sorry it's taken me awhile, I've been busy finishing PoA. I always get caught up in that book. This chapter certainly isn't one of the longest but I hope you still enjoy.I have finally finished chapter 8, so all I have to do is type it up. So it may be aday or so, but be patient and enjoy!)
Chapter 7 – Luck
Harry's heart sank as he whirled around to find Malfoy's sneering smirk.
"Well well, Potter and the youngest Weasley. This is quite the interesting predicament." He smiled evilly. "What shall I do?
"Shove off Malfoy!" Harry said maliciously.
"Now I don't think that's the proper way to treat a prefect. What do you think Weasley…Oh wait, I don't believe what he was just doing with you is how I want to be treated either." He sneered.
"Shut up Malfoy! Nobody in their right mind would ever be within ten feet of you. Come on Harry." She grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him along with her out of the water. They started to walk back to the castle, but Malfoy was right behind them.
"I think we should go and see what Professor Snape would say about a prefect ignoring her rounds to go and visit another student." He said almost jovially.
"If you think we're coming with you…" Harry said as he reached for the door, but he couldn't find the handle. Instead his hand hit something that made him close his eyes.
"Aw, Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley. What a surprise." A horrible smiled twisted on Professor Snape's face. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed. "Mr. Malfoy, please go back to your rounds."
Malfoy looked crestfallen. "But Professor-" he was cut short by the look Snape gave him. It clearly said that he would be filled in to what happened. Malfoy smirked again, "Yes Professor." Malfoy left to patrol the dungeons.
"Come with me!" Snape's eye's glinted dangerously at Harry and Ginny.
Harry was surprised that they weren't being lead into the dungeons as well, but up the staircase.
"You both will receive a week's detention along with owls written home to your families. I think the rest should be left up to Professor McGonagall. I'm sure she will be somewhat less then please to find two of her students out of bed at night." They stopped outside of the Transfiguration classroom.
Ron put his hand to his stomach, "I couldn't eat another bite." He groaned.
"Good thing then, since there isn't anything else to eat." She grinned.
"There's still plenty in the fridge."
She rolled her eyes, "Come on we should be getting back to the common room. Harry's probably wondering where we are."
"Okay." They left the kitchens and entered the Great Hall. "You know it's kind of nice in here when it's empty."
She shrugged, "I guess so."
"You guess so? Come on, look up for me. If there were hundreds of students in here you wouldn't pay that ceiling a bit of attention."
Hermione looked up to see the ceiling scattered with stars. She could even make out a few of the constellations. Ron however looked at her instead of the ceiling. He still couldn't believe how the day had turned out. One moment they were having a bitter argument and the next she was asking him to kiss her. He stood there watching her eyes roam the ceiling. He took in the way the stars highlighted her hair and shimmered on her face.
She felt his lingering stare and she turned back to him with a grin, "What?"
"Nothing." He said.
"Yes there is, why were you staring at me?"
"What I can't look at you now?" He asked innocently.
"No you cant." She grinned.
He paused a moment and took hold of her hand. They both looked down as their fingers intertwined. He looked up at her. "Well since I can't look at you," he closed his eyes quickly and she laughed as she saw him, "Can I kiss you then?"
She was silent for a few moments causing him to open one of his eyes. "Hey no peeking!" She grinned and he quickly closed it again. She took a step forward and she tilted her head up to look at his face. She stood up on the tips of her toes and pressed her lips against his. She wrapped her arms around his neck to help support her. As she kissed him a thought kept popping up in her head, the same thought that had been bothering her since she had first kissed him earlier tonight. She pulled back to look at him.
"What do you see in me?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Nothing, I can't look at you remember?" He grinned.
"No I'm serious. What is it? I…I mean I'm not like the other girls here. I'm not pretty or flirtatious like the others."
Ron's eyes slowly opened, "How can you say that? You're the smartest witch in the school; you don't need to flirt to be recognized. That's the only way those girls will ever get noticed. That's what's great about you." He paused and moved his hand to her hair. "I think you're the prettiest girl at this school." He reddened as he said this.
"Oh please Ron, you don't need to lie to me." She removed her arms from around his neck. "You obviously didn't think that when Fleur Delacour was here." She was surprised to here him laugh.
"Hermione she was part veela!" He paused thinking that was obvious. "I mean half the guys in school dropped their girlfriends because of her. She had like, this power."
"You could have ignored her." She said sadly and moved away from him.
"And I did! When…when I saw you the night of the Yule Ball I was…speechless. I had never seen you or any other girl look so beautiful. All I did all night was watch you and curse my luck that Krum was your date."
She gave a small smiled.
"I like you Hermione, that's why I'm here telling you all these things…" He tentatively placed his hands on her waist and bent down and kissed her. "I like you because you're different from the others…I mean you can even be match for me in an argument. That has to count for something." He smiled and she laughed. "Now come on we have to get back." She just nodded and held his hand in hers.
Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall's lips purse so much. She looked as if she had just sucked on the sourest lemon in the world, which could have been funny if it wasn't for the death glare she was now giving them.
"Thank you Professor Snape for bringing this to my attention. If you would be so kind, I would like to deal with them myself."
"Let me remind you Professor that I have already given them a week's detention, but if you feel they need more that is up to you!" He smiled wickedly. "I also will be sending them owls to their families."
"Professor Snape, I would like to write those owls if you don't mind. They are in my house after all."
"Of course." His eyes glinted as he turned with a swish of his cloak and was gone.
"Professor we were-" Ginny began as soon as the door closed.
"Silence Miss Weasley! I do not care for excuses; you should know that by now. Twenty points each will be taken from Gryffindor! I am very disappointed in you two, especially you Miss Weasley, being a newly appointed prefect." Her eyes narrowed. "Since Professor Snape has already given you a week's detention, I will inform you in the morning when you will be report to Mr. Filch. I am warning you now…if I or any other teacher or prefect find you two together outside of the common room this late at night, I will suspend your prefect duties and Mr. Potter your captaining position."
Harry and Ginny looked down. "We're sorry Professor." They said together.
"You best be! The only reason I do not suspend those rights at this moment is because you Miss Weasley, have never gotten into trouble and I feel you deserve a second chance. Even though I do not condone what you two did tonight! As for you Mr. Potter, I would like to see the Quidditch Cup with Gryffindor's name on it again this year and I still feel you are the best person for captain. Remember what I have said here tonight…I won't be as lenient next time, even if it does concern Gryffindor."
"Yes Professor." They said in unison again.
"Miss Weasley, please return to the common room with Mr. Potter, your rounds are over for the night." She looked them up and down. "Change into other clothes as soon as you get there, I don't want Madam Pomfrey to get upset with me for not telling you to do so. You don't want to catch a chill. Now go."
They nodded their heads and walked quietly out of the classroom. Once they had reached the floor above they felt that it was safe to talk.
"I'm so sorry Ginny. I honestly didn't think we would be caught."
She shook her head, "It's not your fault, I didn't try to stop you or anything so." They continued walking up the steps in silence for a few more floors, "You know we are actually kind of lucky with the punishment me got."
He looked down at her, "How do you figure?"
"Well losing forty points wasn't exactly fabulous, but considering it was Snape that we met first, a week's detention isn't all that bad."
"But what about the owl home…I mean for you it's going to be horrible won't it."
She stopped, "I forgot about that…I'm going to get a howler for sure."
"Make sure you're outside when post comes."
She looked at him and continued to walk, "That's true, perhaps no one will hear it…even so our punishment wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. All we have to do it make sure we aren't out when we aren't supposed to. That's easy enough."
He smiled at her, "You're amazing, I don't even think Ron would take that perspective."
She stopped again; they were outside the portrait hole. "What do we tell Ron? He's going to now we were together with our clothes like this, plus our punishments."
"Well maybe he's up in the dormitory so I can just sneak by."
He said the password as he heard his name. "Harry!" The portrait swung open when Harry turned to see Ron calling his name down the corridor.
"Go! Hurry and change before he see us up close." Harry whispered and pushed Ginny in front of him and he followed behind. They ran up their separate staircases.
Ron looked at Hermione, "What was that! Why'd they run away?" He said speeding up his pace.
Hermione's eyes looked about the corridor and saw one of the doors leading to an empty classroom. She quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. "What are you doing Hermione? They were up to something."
"Did I tell you thank you for saying all those things back there to me?" She asked hurriedly.
"What?" He asked bewildered.
"Thank you for saying all those nice things to me. It made me feel so much better." She took a step closer to him.
"Your welcome." He said still looking a little confused, "They were true though, I wasn't just saying that to make you feel good." He smiled.
"You know you are the only guy that can drive me crazy, but the next second make me feel wonderful. Just by a look or a smile."
"Well I'm glad I drive you crazy." He grinned.
She kissed him, "Come on let's get inside."
They walked out of the classroom and Ron quickly said the password and looked around the common room. Harry and Ginny were nowhere in site. "I'm going to go check on Harry. Goodnight." He rushed up the stairs as Hermione did the same up the girl's staircase.
Ron opened the door to find Harry sitting on his bed rubbing his head in a towel; his clothes now dry. "Hey Harry, why'd you and Ginny run like that from me?"
Harry removed the towel, his hair sticking up at even odder angles then usual.
"Well…um I-I saw her in the corridor patrolling and I went and talked to her. Malfoy found us t-talking. Then he lead us to Snape and we got a week's detention, owl home and twenty points each from Gryffindor." He shook his head. "Yeah that's about it." He said his eyes looking about the room. "McGonagall said if she found us in the corridors when we aren't supposed to I would be suspended from captaining and Ginny her prefect duties. So I didn't feel it was good for us to linger in the halls so…" He said all of this very quickly.
Ron just blinked. "You got a week detention just for talking to her?" He asked in amazement. "That doesn't seem fair."
"Yeah well, that's McGonagall and Snape for you. You know, love to dish out punishments." He grinned awkwardly.
"Well, Hermione's not going to be happy about this." Ron said. "She said just earlier this evening that you were trying your luck with going out at night so much. You best be prepared to hear her scold you."
"Yeah." Harry sighed, relieved that Ron had believed him, "Sorry about running in here."
"No I understand, sorry you guys got caught."
"Believe me, no one's more sorryabout this then I am."
Hermione hurried into Ginny's dormitory. "What happened?" She saw Ginny doing the same as Harry had been doing, rubbing her hair in a towel.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"Don't what me. I saw you guys, you were soaking wet. You're lucky my eyesight is better then Ron's. I tried to buy you some time."
Ginny looked down and recounted what Harry and she had done.
"You guys went swimming! At night! Are you crazy?" Hermione asked.
"That's what I said to him but," she closed her eyes as if she was wincing, "I thought it was kind of romantic too."
Hermione shook her head, "You're a prefect though."
"I know and that didn't help matters any. Malfoy found us and brought us to Snape." Hermione gasped. "He gave us a week's detention and then brought us to McGonagall."
"Ginny…" she said kind of disappointed.
"What I…I mean you would have done it if it was Ron."
Hermione grew slightly pink, "That's not the point…you guys got caught!"
"Yeah well we can't change it now, McGonagall warned us that if we were found again my prefect duties would be suspended and Harry's captaining position as well."
"You aren't thinking of doing this again are you?" She asked.
"No! I want to stay a prefect and I know being captain means just about everything to Harry."
Hermione sighed, "You know you're lucky you got off with those punishment."
"I know! That's what I told Harry."
Hermione shook her head, "You too really are meant for each other." She grinned.
Ginny smiled, "Thanks for covering for us."
"You're welcome, you are so lucky Ron didn't see you guys."
"I know…wait…how did you distract him for so long. I mean there's no doubt he thought that us running away from you guys was weird." She gave her an odd look.
Hermione gave her mock confused look, "I don't know, I just distracted him."
Ginny grinned, "How?"
"Goodnight Ginny." Hermione opened the door and left to her dormitory. Ginny stuck her head out the door. "I expect you to tell me tomorrow." All Hermione did was wave and close the door.
(WELL! Review?)