Chapter four – Passion down by the water's edge
The four teenagers walked down the garden barefooted. The grass tickled their toes and in some areas it crunched beneath their feet. When they reached the lake they all dropped their towels and got ready to jump in.
Ginny grabbed onto the ground and dipped her toe into the water.
'Its really nice. Come on' and with that she jumped into it. Her head broke the surface when she came up. Ginny's red hair sparkled in the sunlight and stuck to her head. The hair that was so long and still in the water swam around beside her shoulders. Ron was the next in, and when he surfaced, he splashed Harry and Hermione.
'Right that's it, you're getting it, Mr. Weasley.' Hermione said while spluttering from the water that had entered her mouth. She grabbed Harry's arm and they both jumped into the water.
Harry felt the water touch his body, and came up with a cluster of air bubbles. His hair stuck to the side of his face, and a few loose tendrils, that were hanging infront of his eyes, interrupted his view.
Hermione pushed her hair back from her eyes and wiped her face to get rid of the excess water. Ginny had been right, the water was pleasant, and they all found that they cooled down quite soon after entering it.
Even though the lake was small, the depth ranged from shallow to deep. While the teenagers were in an area deep enough to stand in up to the middle of their chests they decided to play a game.
'You wanna play volleyball, or something.' Ron asked the three others.
'Yeah okay,' said Harry 'whose going to get the ball?'
'I'll go, I need the toilet.' Ginny said while getting out the lake. You can choose teams.'
Ginny had already run off in search of a ball, and Hermione wondered whose team she would be on.
'I want Hermione, you can have Ginny.' Harry said after grabbing Hermione around her middle, to claim her as his.
'Fine, but you're going down.' Ron said with a movement of his thumbs moving towards the surface of the water.
'Whatever.' Hermione said, and turned Harry around so that they were facing away from Ron, 'Why on earth did you choose me, you know how bad I am at sports.' Hermione hissed at Harry, her check pressed into his.
Harry couldn't answer why he had chosen Hermione, it had been the spur of the moment, but he was glad he had. He was also struggling to answer the question because she was so close to him. His arm was still wrapped around her middle, and he could smell her scent coming of her in waves of vanilla and flowers.
'You do realise that we're going to lose now, its going to be them two against you, because I can't play these games. You've just doomed yourself.'
'I don't care if we lose, I want you as my partner.' Harry said, and turned Hermione around with minimum effort.
By now Ginny had returned clutching a ball, and had launched herself into the lake.
'I guess I'm with Ron then.' Ginny said while raising her eyebrow up at Hermione. She mouthed 'later we talk' at Hermione, so discreetly that neither the boys noticed.
The game was wellunderway with Ron and Ginny, in the lead by 13 points.
'Admit it Harry, I told you I was rubbish,' Hermione said to Harry while she attempted to hit the ball that had just been slammed across the water by Ginny.
'Nope, I would still rather have had you than either of them. Even if you were rubbish, which you're not.' Harry said as he slammed the ball back across, to be awarded with a point. 'See we've just got a point, we wouldn't have got it, if you hadn't have been here.'
'Fine, you're just being nice, and that point was actually nothing to do with me, but it doesn't matter, at least we're having fun, that's the main thing isn't it?'
'Yep' Harry said after dunking down to cool off. His torso had become dry and hot with the temperature and immersing in the water soothed his skin.
'I feel like stopping' Ron said, 'I think it was fair to say we won,'
'Yeah I suppose so.' Said Hermione. 'I think I'm going to get out, I've cooled down a lot since this afternoon, and the weather seems to be getting a little cooler.' Hermione walked over to Harry and hugged him, 'Thanks for being my partner, even if we lost. But we played well' Harry said to Hermione.
Hermione's skin was warm with the sun beating down on it all afternoon. As she got out of the lake, she grabbed her towel and started to wipe her legs down. The others had already started getting out, but Harry was paralysed with the image in front of him. Hermione had the setting sun behind her and loose rays came through her hair and past her body. He was slightly dazzled by the look and struggled looking at her.
He turned away fearing they would all see him redden, and dunked back under the water again, to hide from view. He thought about what he had just seen, and realised how angelic she had looked. When he came up again, he noticed that Ron and Ginny had disappeared and Hermione was standing there with his towel in hand.
'You coming?' Hermione asked, 'Ron and Ginny are desperate for food, and have gone to see whether dinner's ready.'
Harry clambered out of the lake, and took the towel from Hermione's hand. He quickly dried himself off and wrapped it round his lower half. Even having trunks on, Harry still felt slightly tense having such little clothing on near Hermione.
Hermione who had been use to looking closely without attracting attention, immediately noticed Harry tense up. She reached her hand over and touched his shoulder. He jumped slightly and Hermione burrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
'What's wrong Harry? Why are you so tense?' Hermione asked while slowly rubbing his shoulder. She tried to settle the butterflies that were moving around in her stomach, due to touching his skin. It was still slightly wet, and felt like a lubricant between her skin and his. She could feel his shoulder muscles contracting and relaxing slightly under her touch as they pushed against his skin.
Harry tried to make an excuse about why he was so tense, he couldn't exactly tell her the truth. So he came up with the next good reason, he missed Sirius
'I'm just missing Sirius,' Harry said, and once he said it, he actually felt worse, the memories of Sirius came back and he struggled to take a regular breath. He had slowly been getting back to reality and had shut the loss of Sirius away deep in his heart. He hadn't brought it up, until now and with bringing something he had tried for so long to shut away, temporarily brought down his defences that he had spent so long fabricating.
Hermione stopped and turned Harry towards her, he looked down, not wanting to see pity in her eyes. He loved her eyes but he didn't want to see the pity. Hermione's lip quivered and she launched herself into his arms. Harry shocked quickly grabbed her before she fell through his arms. Her petite structure was held between his two arms, while she had hers clutched around his neck. Her head buried in his neck as she mentally scolded herself. It was Harry who needed the comforting, but she had forced him to comfort her.
Harry quickly relaxed with Hermione in his arms, and placed his head in her neck and hair, he deeply breathed the scent in. The smell almost forced his eyes to roll back in their socket as he suppressed a moan. That was when he realised just how close they were pinned together and he could feel certain areas strongly. He could easily say that his mind was definitely now off Sirius.
His neck suddenly felt cold and he seemed to slightly snap out of some sort of daze he had been under. He wished she would put him back under whatever spell she had hypnotised him with.
She looked at him and he found he had to look. Their eyes met, green meeting brown. But it was more than that. Hermione found herself looking into his almond shaped eyes. She was so close that she could see the line that separated his green from the white. She could see the green had different shades making her look at depth. Harry found that he saw gold specs scattered around in her brown orbs. Her eyes hidden behind a thick layer of eyelashes accentuated her femininity. The area round her black pupil was lined with a thin layer of the colour dark chocolate. Harry hadn't noticed how in captivating her eyes were, and found he couldn't tear his gaze away. Both their heads slowly leaning forward, involuntarily, until they both slowly lowered their lids so they could see each other's lips. When they touched, Harry could see multiple colours behind his lids, he could feel her soft lips full and pushing against his. Hermione's butterflies had flown up towards her heart and were plummeting again. She moved her lips millimetres away from Harry's so she let in a deep breath. When she breathed out she crashed her lips against Harry's again.
Harry had felt disorientated when she had removed her lips, but his mouth opened slightly when he felt her breath on his skin, it slowly made its way into his mouth and he swallowed it before she had placed him back under her spell. He slowly opened his mouth and she responded straight away.
Harry didn't know what to do, he had only kissed Cho last year, and that had been a disaster. But he found once he opened his mouth, he slowly pushed his tongue into her mouth and was greeted with an electric shock feeling her tongue against his.
Both feeling slightly breathless drew away slowly; still standing shakily inches away from each other. When they opened their eyes, Hermione had pictured this scene to have been awkward, with both of them trying to avoid each other's eyes. But the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Harry's.
They both had a smile on their face, and each took a deep breath in.
'Hermione' Harry said seriously, 'I want to tell you that for quite a while now I have had feelings about you, um' Harry said turning nervous 'would you like, um like to go out with me, I mean do you want to go out with me.' Hermione's eyes widen and her smile got even bigger.
'You serious?' Hermione said glancing at different eyes.
'I've never been more serious than I have now, Hermione. Do you want to be my girlfriend?' gaining in confidence
'I've been waiting for this moment for ages now, Harry and nothing in the world is going to make me say no.' with that she pressed her lips to his to seal the deal, and grabbed Harry's hand, 'we better get back, they're going to wonder what we've been doing all this time.' She suddenly stopped and turned to Harry. Harry was worried, because she looked apprehensive, 'What should we tell them?'
'Why don't we tell them tonight, after dinner we can sit them down and tell them, until then, we're going to have to act normal. You now how Ron acts, he'll be jealous if he finds out before we tell him.'
'Yes you're right.' Hermione said, and her smiled immediately came back on.
Walking hand and hand they entered through the kitchen door, with their smiles reaching their eyes.
'Why are you so happy?' Ginny asked staring at Hermione and Harry, and then noticing their entwined hands gasped. She grabbed Ron's lower arm, and Hermione's, dragging Harry along. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, and realised that their little discussion might have to come before dinner.