A/N: Hello everybody long time no see!

I have finally managed to take a break from studying and get this next chapter done. Thank you to all of you who have patiently waited.

Disclaimer: Only the plot is mine. Harry Potter and all other related characters belong to JK Rowling.

"Never Been Kissed" – Chapter 2

How Could You?

"Aww come on Hermione it's a water fight between us and the Slytherins! It won't last forever!"

Hermione looked up from her Ancient Runes notes and looked at Harry's pleading face.

"I know but I've just got a few inches to do on this essay then I'll come out. You go out and have fun!"

"Are you sure?" asked Harry

"Yes go get lost!" she laughed.

Harry reluctantly headed for the portrait hole. He stopped and turned to face her.

"Well please try to come down Hermione, we need you on the team."

"I'll do my best I promise. See you later."

"Bye!"

Harry picked up his charmed water pistol (one which automatically refills), gave Hermione a mischievous grin and dashed out of the common room.

When Harry was out of sight Hermione turned round to look at her homework and shook her head in frustration. The truth was that she had a lot more work to do than what she had said – she just didn't want to hurt Harry's feelings.

Four weeks had passed by since Hermione had forgotten about the Quidditch match and things were now very much back to normal between Hermione and Harry and Ron.

Despite that she was feeling terribly guilty.

She just couldn't believe how her initial apology had gotten her into such a terrible mess….

Flashback

The morning after Hermione's confrontation with Harry, Hermione came down from her dormitory and saw Harry and Ron standing in the common room. Harry noticed her and smiled weakly but Ron kept his back to her. They started to walk away but Hermione ran down the rest of the stairs to catch up with them. When she finally caught up with them, she put her hands on their shoulders to stop them.

"Look guys, I am really sorry about yesterday."

Harry turned to look at her but Ron still stared down at his shoes.

"I swear that I would have went to the match the second I realised… you have a right to be angry but I want to make it up to you. Please."

Harry looked at her in the eye and smiled. "It's ok Hermione. We know that you didn't do it deliberately. Don't we Ron?"

Harry elbowed Ron in the ribs which made him look up at Hermione with a disappointed look on his face. "Yeah...yeah Harry's right"

Hermione smiled as a great amount of relief swept over her.

"We know that you're working hard Hermione, " said Ron. "But it upsets us to see you so stressed out. Any teacher will tell you that you have to have some fun too...well maybe not Snape."

Hermione smiled. "I know but I just have so much to do."

Harry and Ron looked disappointed at what she had said – as if they thought that she didn't care about them. She wanted to prove to them that that wasn't true…no matter what she had to do. So she took a deep breath and sighed.

"Look, I'm not promising anything, but I…I will try to cut down on the extra credit work"

Both boys were completely shocked at what Hermione had just said – that wasn't like her at all. Ron's jaw nearly dropped but Harry was the first to speak.

"That's great Hermione," he said as he stroked her arm. "You will still be top of our year don't worry about that. But…only do it if you want to."

Hermione deeply thought about this for a moment – but she knew definitely what she cared for the most. "Yeah, I've been thinking about this for a while now…and I'm sure."

Hermione gave both of them a quick hug.

"Hermione we're going to Hogsmeade do you want to come with us?" asked Ron.

"I wish I could but I really should look over my charms notes from Thursday and – "

Hermione stopped suddenly as Ron shook his head at her.

"Oh fine I'll come!"

"Brilliant! That's more like it," said Ron. "Race you to the courtyard!"

Ron laughed and made a mad dash in the opposite direction, with Harry and Hermione following closely behind laughing.

Present

She had tried her best to cut down on work – she really had. She had even managed to cut down on a few assignments in the first two weeks. But it was coming increasingly harder. The same dominant question kept coming into her head.

What if it comes in handy with my future career? What if it's important?

Seeing Ron's face when she told him she had work to do was hard enough…but for Harry, it was totally different.

The difference was that Ron mainly appeared angry. And Ron being angry at her wasn't exactly a new thing – she was actually quite used to it after six years. But Harry never seemed angry, he seemed disappointed. Hermione hated it when Harry was disappointed in her, mainly because he hardly ever was and because of her increasing feelings towards him.

'Feelings which he probably won't return' she thought sadly.

Hermione's stomach churned as she looked at her watch. It had been an hour and a half since Harry had gone.

Without taking a second look at her books, she left the common room to join in the water fight. Besides, she fancied having fun anyway…and also Harry had wanted her there.

Halfway down the stairs she began to hear many voices laughing and they were approaching her.

"DID YOU SEE HIS FACE!"

"GREAT SHOT GUYS!"

She looked over the banister to see very wet looking Gryffindors running up the stairs towards her like a stampede. Snape was standing at the foot of the stairs and to Hermione's surprise…he was also soaked.

"10 POINTS FROM GRYYFINDOR! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Hermione squashed herself against the banister to let the Gryffindors through.

"Hey Hermione!" shouted Lavender as she ran past.

"You missed out on the fun!" yelled Seamus.

"Classic!" yelled Dean.

Harry and Ron were at the back of the group and they slowed down as they saw Hermione. Both were dripping wet, shirtless and carrying a water pistol each. Hermione took a deep breath and forced her self to look above their shoulders. (Well, Harry's at least)

"Hey Hermione!" said Ron while he gasped for breath.

"Hi Ron. Hi Harry," said Hermione. "You look as if you had a good time. What happened?"

"Well the fight stared between us and the Slytherins," said Harry. "But then the other houses found out. Must have been about 500 of us there!"

"Even better was when Malfoy fell in the lake after Ginny tripped him up!" said Ron with a huge grin on his face. "Anyway after about an hour Snape, being the git he is, told us to keep the noise down as we were disturbing the teachers."

"Disturbing him more like," said Harry.

"Yeah, then he threatened to take points off so people started to go inside until there was just the Gryffindors and some Ravenclaws left. Just as we passed him me, Harry, Dean, Seamus and Neville turned round and soaked him. Bloody brilliant!"

"You soaked a teacher!" said Hermione

"And a few others threw water balloons at him!"

"Sounds like you had good fun," muttered Hermione sadly.

"Yeah, why didn't you come Hermione? Hey what's wrong?" asked Harry

"That's why I'm here. I was on my way to join in. If you don't believe me there are a pile of books on the desk in the common room which Ileft behind! I…I'm just disappointed that I missed it."

"Yeah it was a shame you missed it," said Harry. Yet again he looked disappointed and Hermione gazed down at the floor. "But if the weather stays like this I'm sure there will be another one soon."

Hermione smiled at Harry's optimism. "Yeah let's hope so."

"Hey hold on a minute," said Ron. "Who said that she can't join in now?"

Ron grinned widely at Harry and winked. Harry soon caught on.

"Oh yeah, no time like the present,"

Hermione put her hands on her hips. "Honestly! Now will one of you two please tell me what you-"

Hermione suddenly silenced when she saw that the boy's guns were aimed directly at her chest. She screamed and ran as fast as she could back upstairs, followed closely by Harry and Ron who were soaking her from behind.

"AAHH STOP IT!" she screamed behind her back.

"YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO JOIN IN!" shouted Harry as the trio disappeared upstairs.

6 hours later

Harry and Ron continued to soak her all the way up to the common room until she managed to hide by running up to her dorm. It was great fun, but she still wished that she could have joined in with the rest of the school.

Currently it was 11pm and Hermione was the only one left in the common room. She was sitting in one of the comfy chairs by the fire with a large Arithmancy book on her lap. She was trying to finish off some extra credit work which she had been working on for four hours. AND she had potions and charms homework still to do.

Since her "fight" with Harry and Ron, Hermione felt guilty every time she did extra credit work – like she was betraying their trust or something…but she didn't want to risk missing out on information which could come in handy one day. It was just too risky.

Hermione was so deep in her thoughts that she never noticed a school owl fly through the common room window. She jumped when it landed on the table next to her. The owl dropped a note on the arm of her couch and flew off again.

'Who on earth could this be from?' she thought.

She eagerly opened the note and began to read:

Miss Granger,

I regret to inform you (once again) that the deadline for the next school paper is quickly approaching.

In order to get the paper issued on time, I hope to see an initial draft of the main news stories first thing Tuesday morning. No exceptions.

As both your teacher and Head of House, I fully recognise the responsibility and number of tasks that you have taken on this year. If there is at any point where you are feeling too stressed, please do not hesitate to contact me. Also your position as editor can possibly be re-allocated if you wish this to happen.

Kindest Regards,

M. McGonagall

She felt like bursting into tears there and then. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten about the paper. Professor McGonagall had been reminding her for 3 weeks now!

In a frantic fury she checked her notes for any stories. There was nothing – she now had two days to find news for the paper!

Silent tears rolled down her face. She had so much work to do, and now Professor McGonagall was beginning to lose trust in her. Doing the only thing that she could do, she picked up her quill and continued with her work, knowing that it was going to be a very long night.

"Hermione?"

Hermione quickly wiped away her stray tears and turned to face the voice. It was Harry.

"Oh hi Harry," she said. "What are doing up at this time?"

"I could ask you the same question," he laughed as he sat down next to Hermione.

"Oh you know me, " she said. "Working as usual."

Harry looked over and saw the very large pile of books next to her.

"Hermione, I thought you said that you were going to cut down on your work."

"I have," she lied. "It's just that I've got this really big Arithmancy test tomorrow which I really need to revise for."

"And the rest?" he asked.

No answer. Hermione was already scribbling frantically on a piece of parchment.

"Look, Hermione, the reason I'm here is…there's something I want to tell you."

Hermione then spoke without even looking up at him. "Huh sorry I didn't quite catch that."

Harry felt as if Hermione didn't even know he was there. Like he was invisible. But he really needed to get her attention…he wanted her to know first. So he took a deep breath and stared at his clasped hands.

"Eh, well…last year after Sirius…well after that I was in Dumbledore's office a-"

SMASH!

"Dammit!"

Hermione had knocked over her ink bottle and was now on her hands and knees removing the stains with her wand.

"Sorry Harry I've just got so much work to do, I'm really really sorry but can this please wait until tomorrow?"

For a few moments Harry sat there, completely shocked by what she said. This was definitely not like her at all. She always found time for their chats; it was something that Harry always looked forward to. He didn't know if Hermione felt the same, but Harry felt as if they were much closer now, they could tell each other anything.

Within minutes Hermione was back at her work, and completely ignoring Harry again, but Harry was adamant that he was going to tell her his secret.

"No, Hermione, it can't. Me and Dumbledore were talking and he told me some stuff…about Sirius and the pro-"

"I know this is hard Harry but you have to accept that Sirius is gone, he would have wanted you to get on with your...oh where are my charms notes!"

Hermione suddenly jumped out of her chair and was thoroughly searching the common room. As much as he didn't want to be, Harry was now getting angry.

"Hermione! Please will you listen to me?"

"LOOK HARRY! I have A LOT of work to do! So PLEASE go and moan about Sirius to somebody else."

The second Hermione finished her sentence she covered her mouth with both hands.

"Oh my God… Harry please I didn't – "

"Fine," he whispered.

Without saying a word, Harry walked past Hermione on his way upstairs. Hermione grabbed his arm to stop him but he shook her off him.

"Don't touch me," he spat.

"Please don't walk away," she pleaded.

"I'm sorry…I just can't look at you right now Hermione."

Hermione stood frozen on the spot while Harry walked silently up to his dormitory. She heard the door slam with great strength.

Oh…My…God

She has completely blown it now! Inside she was mentally hitting herself. That was probably the end of her friendship with Harry as she knew it. Silently, she took slow paces back to her seat and at down.

She stayed there the rest of the night, thinking about what she had done, sobbing uncontrollably and thinking constantly about what Harry had said.

"I'm sorry…I just can't look at you right now Hermione"

A/N I know I know I'm sorry I made Hermione so evil but it is really important to the plot – and anyway it won't stay like that forever. I promise.

I also promise that I will try to get the final chapters up sooner. I have my exams coming up but I will be on study leave for them so hopefully I will fit in time for this too.

Until then please review but no flames thank you!

Stephy xx