Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter . . . sigh.
The Christmas holiday was finally here and it seemed as if they were the only ones left in the entire school.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were all hanging out in the Gryffindor common room by the fire. There were no classes and, much to Hermione's displeasure, no extra homework. So there really was nothing to do.
Harry and Ron were relaxing in the two arm chairs on either side of the fire place while Hermione and Ginny were on the floor; Ginny lay on her stomach with her head resting on her crossed arms, and Hermione sat cross-legged, while stroking Crookshanks, who lay purring on her lap.
The only sounds in the room were the crackling of the fire and the low purring of Crookshanks, until, "I'm bored." came out of Ron's mouth. Startled by the sudden break of the silence, Crookshanks' head jerked up.
"Anyone have any idea of what we can do?" Ron asked, while shifting uncomfortably in his chair. Everyone sat thinking, then Ginny replied,
"How about we play hide and seek?"
Harry looked around the room as if searching for the person who had just spoken while one of Ron's eyebrows arched up in question. He protested with, "That's a boring game."
Ginny sighed and said, "Oh, come on," she rolled over on her back then sat up and continued, "We're in a school of magic aren't we? We could try to incorporate magic into the game."
Hermione sat up straight, interested, "Sounds like a lot more fun than the muggle way." At this point, Crookshanks left the warmth of Hermione's lap to find a more quiet spot.
Now Harry spoke, "If we are going to play this, we need to set up some rules, like where we're aloud to go."
Ginny was now standing and seemed to be taking charge, "Right, so we can't go into the dungeons or any of the first two floors, I mean face it, there's not really anywhere to hide in the Great Hall. Oh, and we have to stay in the castle, no going out on the lawn, that's off limits."
Ginny was pacing back and forth in front of the fire as she listed off the rules. Harry could not help but admire how forceful she was being, gone was the shy little girl he met at Kings Cross Station five years ago. He tried to pay attention to as much of the rules as he could while she was still talking.
"So, I guess anywhere from the third floor and up to the astronomy tower is aloud, it's eight o'clock now so we'll play for an hour, and if after an hour, at nine o'clock whether you've been found or not everyone has to come back to the common room, got it?"
"Sure."
"Okay."
"Alright." was everyone's response.
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As Ron, Hermione and Ginny all put their shoes on, Harry went up to the boy's dormitory claiming to have left his shoes there. As Harry walked towards the stairs, Ron noticed that Harry's shoes were in fact behind the couch, but thought nothing of it.
Ginny was it since she thought of the game. She waited in the common room for about five minutes to give the others time to find a spot.
Ron stood on the outside of the portrait hole, he watched as Harry practically flew down the stairs and out of sight. He then turned to Hermione and asked, "Where are you hiding?" Hermione looked at him the way she usually did and said, "I'm not telling you! Besides, if you want to know so badly, you'll just have to figure it out on your own." And with that she gave a sort of hair toss as she turned and started down the stairs. When she was half way down the stairs she bit her bottom lip as she turned to look back, her eyes connected with Ron's then she gave a small smile. Then she turned again and disappeared.
Ron scrunched up his face as though thinking very hard about something. Hermione had never smiled at him that way before. As Ron thought about it a bit more, he had never seen Hermione smile like that to anybody, her smile, if it was possible, seemed a bit, flirty. Ron shook his head and started down the stairs. Hermione could never think of Ron that way, he was one of her best friends, it would never happen, never.
Or would it?
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A/N: Dum, dum, dum. How did you like the intro? Yes this was just the intro, not a real chapter. The rest of the story is probably going to be one big chapter and then, there will most likely be a sequel. I've already written Hide and Seek it's just a matter of having the time to type it. The sequel however is still in the works. Read and Review! Thanx!