Ch 15- Spin the Bottle and Girl Talk

A/N: Great news everyone! Testing is OVER! Yayy!! So updating should pick up speed again! Thanks to everyone who wished my luck! I know I did brilliant on English, I think I did pretty well on Science too…History, well that's my worst subject, but I don't think I did too bad! Well, on with the story!

Once everyone had had their turn of embarrassment with the vertuiserum, the teenagers sat, thinking of what to do next. After a few minutes of thinking, Lavender shrieked,

"Ooh! I know what we can play!"

"What?" Several people asked.

"It's a muggle game called spin the bottle!" She exclaimed.

"Lavender!" Hermione shouted, perplexed from Ron's lap. Harry, as well as the other people with muggle families and relatives looked scared. Others, with wizarding families, including Ron and Ginny looked thoroughly confused, and continually kept asking,

"What!? What's wrong!?"

"Oh come on Hermione! Live a little!" Lavender said. "It'll be fun!"

"It won't be so fun if it lands on some one you don't want it to!" Hermione protested.

"Can some one please tell us what this game is and why it's so bad!?" Ron asked loudly.

"It's not bad!" Lavender whined. Hermione moved off of Ron's lap and turned and looked at him seriously.

"Spin the bottle is a muggle game, and you play by sitting in a circle and placing a bottle on in the center, on the floor. Then you take turns spinning the bottle. Whoever the bottle points to, has to go in a closet with the person who spun it and kiss them!" Hermione finished exasperatedly.

"Oh." Said Ron, "What's so bad about that?" Hermione opened her mouth but then shut it, and swallowed her frustration. Harry and Ginny and several others just stared at him like some kind of idiot.

"It's bad Ron," Harry said, speaking slightly slower than usual, "because it might not land on the person you want-it-to." Harry said jerking his head towards Hermione on the last three words.

"Oh!" Ron said, a look of understanding forming on his face "Then I-uh agree with Hermione." Hermione smacked him in the side with a pillow.

"You're so thick sometime you know that?" She said annoyed but with a slight smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah," Ron said, "But you still love me anyways." And he smiled a stupid mock smile. Hermione just blushed and said,

"Mmm." though, her smile was slightly more recognizable.

"Oh come on guys!" Lavender pouted. "There's still a chance you can get the person you want to!" Ginny snorted.

"Yeah!" Said Dean, quickly glancing at Lavender.

"Lets take a vote." Ginny suggested. "Everyone who doesn't want to play, raise your hand." Her own, Hermione's, and Ron's hand raised into the air, along with a few other limited people. Ginny sighed and said lazily, "If you want to play the stupid game, raise your hand. The remaining people, as well as the majority raised their hands.

"Great!" said Lavender excitedly. "Now all that we need is a bottle.

"Here." Said Seamus draining the last gulp of butterbeer in his bottle and handing it to her. She set it on the floor and ordered everyone to form a boy-girl-boy-girl circle around it. They did as they were told and waited patiently…some what.

"I'll go first," Lavender said, "seeing as it was my idea." She exhaled and leaned forward and spun the bottle. Everyone stared at it as it spun wildly around and around. It slowed and Lavender bit her lip. It pointed to Colin then…

"Neville?" Lavender asked looking at him in horror. Hermione snorted but shut out her giggles as to not make Neville think she wasn't insulting him, because she wasn't. Neville was a perfectly nice boy, she knew that, she just knew that there were quite a few other people in the room she knew Lavender would rather kiss.

"Rules are rules!" Ginny said grinning. Lavender hesitantly stood up.

"Wait!" Hermione said. "How do you know if you really kissed?" Lavender shrugged.

"I have an idea." Harry said. "Be right back!" And he sprinted up the stairs leading to the boys dorms. Not a minute later, he returned with a small, familiar to some, cubic object. He beamed at it.

"What's that?" asked Lavender nervously.

"My lie detector." Harry said matter-of-factly. "When you come out, we'll just ask if you kissed…on the lips, and it will tell us if you were telling the truth or not."

"Fair enough." Lavender said. Again, she exhaled and said, "Come on Neville." Neville whimpered but followed her into the spacious closet in the corner of the room.

"I can't believe I'm going to do this." Lavender said.

"Your idea!" Hermione said smiling teasingly at her. Ron just looked at her, shook his head and laughed. Lavender and Neville entered the closet and closed the door behind him. Everyone was listening intently. They all laughed as they heard Neville say something about "having a girlfriend already and that Luna is going to kill him". A short silence and then Lavender opened the door followed by an extremely red Neville. Some people wooed and clapped, others just laughed at the scared terrified expression on Neville's face.

Harry instructed Lavender to lick her thumb and place it on the indent, and asked her if she kissed Neville. She said yes, and of course, it glowed a bright electric blue. Lavender then, as to get revenge on her, picked Hermione to go next.

"I don't want to." Hermione said stubbornly.

"You have to." Lavender said.

"No. I don't." Hermione said folding her arms across her chest.

"Hermiiioneeee!" Lavender said.

"Arguh! I hate you." She said leaning forward and spinning the bottle. Again, it spun wildly around and around. Hermione bit her lip. It slowed and seemed like for ever to stop. Hermione bit her lip to hard she feared it would bleed. Finally, the bottle revolved extremely slow, coming to a rest. On Seamus. Hermione made a sort of squeaking noise and Ron had to convince her to stop biting her lip.

"Fine." Hermione said finally. "Let's just go and get this over with." She took one last look at Ron, who seemed to be battling on how to feel about the situation, and walked into the closet with Seamus and closed the door.

"Let's just…lets just do this and get it over with." Hermione said again. Seamus took a step towards her and for a moment, Hermione thought she was having another breathing attack. He leaned forward, faces two inches apart, one, a centimeter…

Lavender watched as Hermione walked out of the closet quickly up to her with the lie-detector.

"You know how to use it." Lavender said holding it out. Harry and Ginny looked at each other, noticing that Hermione's posture told them that she was angry. Hermione licked her thumb forcefully and thrust it on the correct spot on the detector.

"Did you, Hermione, just kiss Seamus?" asked lavender.

"No." Hermione said vehemently. A few people gasped. The small cube began to glow a brilliant blue just as Hermione took her thumb off of it and forced her hands down to her sides and said furiously, but quietly,

"My lips belong to Ron and Ron only," She turned a pretty shade of pink. "You shouldn't make people play if they don't want to!" And she turned on her heal and resumed her seat in Ron's lap, causing a small "umph!" from him.

"Ok." Said Lavender, slightly taken aback.

"You amaze me." Ron whispered in Hermione's ear. She leaned her back to his chest and sighed.

"Does…anybody else want to go?" asked Lavender hesitantly.

"It doesn't matter." Ginny said before anyone could respond. "It's midnight, the boys have to go up." Hermione groaned sleepily but stood to let Ron up. He stood up and handed her her Teddy. He quickly kissed her on the cheek (both blushed mildly) , said a goodnight and followed Harry and the rest of the boys up the stairs. As soon as the last pitter-patter of the boys footsteps were up the stairs and gone, Ginny shouted,

"Girl Talk!"

Hermione walked slowly up to Lavender.

"Listen Lavender," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to blow up at you like that." Lavender looked at her. "It's just, I felt wrong and all and-"

"No, no," Lavender said, "You were right. I shouldn't have made you play when I knew you didn't want to and are already going out with Ron."

"I'm sorry!" They both said at the same time. And Lavender, bring the girly-girl that she is, hugged Hermione who hugged back.

"I think your girlyness has rubbed off on me!" Hermione laughed. Lavender did too. "Hey, guess who just could tear his eyes from you all night?" Hermione told Lavender as they made their way back to their sleeping bags and giggling girls. Lavender raised her eyebrows and gave Hermione a questioning look.

"Dean." Hermione said grinning. Lavender blushed, a very rare thing for her to do. Hermione decided to point this out and gasped, "You're blushing!" Lavender only blushed harder. Hearing this, the other girls began asking why she was blushing.

"I think Lavender likes someoneee, and I think he likes her baaackk!" Hermione said in a sing-song voice.

"Who? Who?" The girls echoed each other.

"Dean." Lavender said so quietly that only Hermione could make out what she said.

"Who?"

"Dean." Said Lavender louder. The girls squealed. While they talked and chatted about how it was 'so obvious' that Dean liked Lavender, Hermione lie on her back, fiddling, once again, with the small heart shaped necklace-collar on her Teddy. She sighed. Her and Ron had only been dating for one day, and yet it seemed like they have been for years. They were really dating for years in a sense, but it just seemed so unreal and amazing to Hermione. Up in his room, Ron was thinking almost the exact same thing. One minute we were fighting, then we were kissing, then we were standing in the rain and now we're dating. Only one day! Not even a day! It's like we have been already all along. This is too good to be true. I must be dreaming. Ron pinched himself. Ow! Ok, that was stupid. Sigh. She wants to go fly ming. I'm going to take her flying some day. Yes, I will.

"So what's up with you and Ron?" asked Parvati. Hermione snapped out of her dream-like state and asked,

"What do you mean? We're together…I mean…a couple I guess."

"What do you mean 'you guess'?" Susan Bones asked.

"Well, yes, actually, we are a couple now."

"He doesn't kiss you very much." Katie Bell said.

"We've kissed!" Hermione said turning crimson.

"Ooh!" Lavender said. "Details!"

"I don't kiss and tell." Hermione said simply.

"You just did." Ginny pointed out.

"Yes…well, I don't give details."

"But-" Lavender started, but Hermione gave her a look. "Fiiine, don't tell us."

"Thank you." Hermione said.

"So you've only kissed once?" Katie asked her.

"Well, sort of, the one was kind of…split into a lot I guess…but so what if we've only kissed once! We've only been going out for not even a day!"

"Oh, you've been going out longer than that, trust me." Ginny said. Hermione gave her a fake glare.

"Well, yes, I suppose you're right." Katie said. But Hermione wasn't one hundred percent convinced. Was she a bad kisser? Maybe I am a bad kisser and that's why Ron doesn't kiss me…no…Ron wouldn't do that! He's just…"

"He's just too much of a gentleman to snog me in public." Hermione told the others.

They all talked late into the morning, or early morning rather, gossiping and giggling away. Dares were made, only to be discovered by the boys the next morning. Hermione snuggled into her sleeping bag and squeezed her Teddy. I love life. She thought as she drifted off to sleep, replaying her day over and over again in her dreams…

A/N: Well, there's chapter 15! It was a little shorter than most, but then again it was a continuation of a chapter. I'm thinking of changing the title and summary of my story to "In Denial", rather than "Helping with Denial" considering, my original plan of this story of having Ginny and Harry come up with a plan to get Hermione and Ron together erupted into a whole new idea. Well, tell me what you think; should I change it or keep it. Review and tell please!!! And like I said, testingOVER! Which means updating will hopefully be back at its original pace!