Chapter Two: Something New

As the movie played Harry kept finding himself watching Hermione rather than the movie. Once, when he pulled his eyes away from the television and looked over at Hermione, he noticed her give a slight shiver. "Are you cold?" he asked.

"A bit," she responded, surprised that he had actually noticed.

"Here," he said as he took the blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said with a grin.

As the movie went on the room seemed to get colder. Looking over at Harry, Hermione noticed that he was now looking rather cold. "Come here," she said shifting around and holding the blanket up for him to join her underneath it.

Harry moved over and Hermione put the blanket over his shoulders as well. "Thanks," he said with a smile. They were now so close that their shoulders were touching, which made Hermione smile to herself.

The movie they were watching turned out to have a rather sad ending. Hearing a sniffle coming from his left Harry looked over and saw a tear trailing down Hermione's cheek. "Hey," he said with a gentle smile, "it's just a movie." Putting his arm around her, Harry pulled her close to try and comfort her.

For the last ten minutes of the movie Hermione cried while Harry held her, rubbing her shoulder. Hermione put her head down on his shoulder and was now wetting his shirt with her tears.

"Hermione it's just a movie," Harry said with a soft laugh as the movie ended.

"Don't laugh at me I cant help it," Hermione said. "I'm a sucker for a sad movie, I always have been," she added, wiping her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Harry apologized, trying to hold in his laughter. "I'll try not to laugh."

"Harry!" she said, sitting up from his embrace and giving him a good swat on the arm.

"I'm sorry!" he said again, now laughing so hard he could barely breathe. "It's just…. its just my shirts all wet!" he said pointing to his shoulder.

"Oh Harry, I'm sorry I didn't know I was messing up your new shirt," Hermione cried, jumping up she grabbed a cloth napkin from the coffee table and began trying to dry his shirt.

"No Hermione" he said grabbing the napkin to stop her. "It's ok don't worry about it. I was just teasing you."

She stopped and looked at him. "Oh, sorry."

"Lighten up, Hermione," Harry said throwing the napkin at her, hitting her in the face.

"Oh now, that was just rude!" she pouted, whacking him with the napkin.

"Hey! It's not my fault you can't catch," Harry teased while trying to stop her from hitting him again.

"Oh what's the matter, Mr. Potter? Cant handle getting beaten up by a girl?" It was her turn to make fun of him.

"That's it. You're dead, Granger!" Harry said in a would-be serious voice as he tried to grab the napkin from her.

"Oh no you don't!" she said getting up and running around the couch, reaching across to hit him again.

"Ok, I see how it is!" Harry said, picking up a second cloth napkin and standing up. "Two can play at this game." But instead of just swatting her with it, Harry twisted it in his hand and snapped it at her. There was a loud crack as the towel just missed her left arm.

"Oh no!" squeaked Hermione, more to her self than to Harry, and ran for it.

"What's wrong Hermione?" he questioned, walking after her. "I thought you wanted to play…"

"Umm… I think I'm done now," Hermione said with a nervous laugh as she tried to hurry out of Harry's reach.

"Oh, but I just got started," he said with a smile. He had finally caught up to her and snapped his napkin at her again this time hitting her on the back of the right knee.

"Ouch," she whispered and turned around and looked at him. "Now that's not very nice," she said walking towards him, her eyes never leaving his. "I am done now," she said rather seriously. As soon as she got close enough she quickly twisted her napkin like Harry had done and snapped it at him, hitting him in the stomach. "Bet you didn't know I could do that," Hermione smirked right before breaking into to a run towards the living room.

He stood there in shock for a second, then the tore after her. Finally, he caught up to her at the end of the couch. Hermione had nowhere to go. Trapped, she was his.

He took a step towards her, preparing his napkin to strike again. As she put up her arms to try and protect herself, Harry dropped the napkin and started tickling her.

Taken by surprise, Hermione cried, "Harry stop!" Laughing, she began backing up and hit the end of the couch.

"Nowhere to go now," Harry told her, laughing.

She tried hitting him and she tried swatting him with her napkin, but nothing would stop him. Finally, she forgot that the couch was right behind her she tried to take another step backwards, falling right over the arm of the couch. In her panic, Hermione tried to grab onto Harry to stop her fall but ended up bringing him with her. For a few seconds they laid there laughing.

After a few seconds, Harry realized he was laying on top of her. She seemed to have realized too because she stopped laughing as well and he felt her tense up.

"Sorry," he muttered trying to get up. As he moved his eyes caught hers and he stopped. They both stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and then, before he knew what he was doing, Harry leaned in and kissed her.

After about a moment or two Harry's senses came rushing back to him and he pulled away. "Hermione, I'm sor…" he started, trying to get up, but he never got to finish that sentence because Hermione then reached up, put both her hands on the back of his head and pulled him back down to her kissing him once again.

Hermione's parents chose this moment to come home from their dinner. Walking in the door they stopped dead in their tracks seeing what was in front of them.

Harry and Hermione pulled apart from each other and the four stood staring at each other until Hermione's mother spoke. " Oh…uh…we'll just…go," she said as she began pushing her husband towards the stairs. Harry couldn't help but think he saw a smile on her face before she turned around.

After her parents had gone up stairs, Harry stared at Hermione. Then they both sat on the couch in silence, trying to figure out what had just happened. Harry tried to speak.

"Mione..." was all he could get out. After a moment, he cleared his throat and tried again.

"Mione..." he swallowed and kept going, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't…" but she cut him off before he could finish.

"Harry its ok," she said sadly, getting up from the couch. "It's my fault. We don't have to do anything about it, if you don't want…. just…don't worry," she finished and began to walk away with her head down.

"Wait!" he said, jumping to his feet, finally realizing was she was saying. It was now or never. "Hermione, I have been in love with you since the end of fifth year, since the moment I thought I lost you in the Department of Mysteries," he said, walking over to her while saying this.

Her back was still toward him. Harry put his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around. She again had tears in her eyes.

"Hermione, what now?" he asked sounding worried.

"No Harry," she said. "These aren't tears of sadness. They are happy tears," she said with a smile. Taking a step closer to him she wrapped her arms around his neck and quietly said, "I have been in love with you since the TriWizard Tournament." She went on with a steady stream of tears now running down her face. "Since I thought I was going to lose you."

He looked at her for a moment and started laughing, "You're crying again."

"Yeah, well…. so what?" she asked.

"Here's what," Harry said leaning in and kissing her gently on the lips.

There was such a sweet tenderness in his kiss that it actually made her knees go weak and her stomach drop to the tips of her toes.

After a few minutes he pulled away so that their faces were only inches apart. He brought his hands from her waist and gently wiped away the tears with his thumbs. Smiling at her he kissed each of her cheeks where his thumbs had been. "We have really got to do something about this," he whispered before kissing her again.

They stayed up all night, talking, snogging, cuddling and snogging some more.