(A/N) I started writting a new chapter but it ended up going better with this one so I decided to just make it one huge chapter. I hope you enjoy what I added. And the next chapter soon I promise.

An Afternoon Swim

It had taken Harry several days to get over his dream. Even though Dumbledore had said that it was nothing to worry about, it still gave Harry an odd feeling when he thought about it. Hermione had made sure that he was doing his occlumency every night before they went to bed. Harry and Hermione had started sharing a room every night since they noticed that when they slept together Harry didn't have any dreams about Voldemort.

The morning of the 30th started out just like any other with the exception of how hot it was. When Harry woke up he reached for his glasses on the night stand and slid them on. He looked around and noticed that both he and Hermione had thrown the blankets off of them through out the course of the night. Hermione was still asleep; she had her back towards him and her hand resting on her slightly exposed stomach. She had taken to wearing short shorts and a tank top to bed because of the heat. Harry defiantly did not mind this. Looking at the clock and seeing that it was half past 9 he figured he better wake Hermione before he got yelled at for letting her sleep to late. He had had that misfortune the previous morning when he had let her sleep until almost 11 o clock.

Harry leaned over to where Hermione was laying and gently placed his had on her knee and moved it up the outside of her leg until his had rested on her waist. She was quite ticklish when she was awake so he figured that this would do the trick.

"Mione" he whispered in her ear "Time to get up"

She made some incoherent noise and tried to roll away from him. He placed his hand on her stomach to keep her from rolling away and tried again "Mione, wake up" he whispered. Again she made a noise and tried to roll away.

Laughing he said " now I got in trouble yesterday morning for letting you sleep too late, I'm not making that mistake again. Now get up"

She still made no attempts to wake up so he said a little bit louder "if you don't open you eyes soon I'm going to have to take some sort of action" he said as he gently started moving his fingers around on her stomach. Still nothing.

"Ok" he said sitting up "You asked for it" he began to tickle her, which had immediately worked. Her eyes shot open and she began laughing hysterically and trying to stop him from tickling her.

"Ok Harry I'm awake stop" she said as she tried to free herself from his grasp. "Please" she pleaded. After a few more seconds he stopped tickling her but kept the pressure on her so she couldn't move

"You sure?" he asked "Because I can try something else"

"Yes, yes I'm awake, see" she said opening her eyes wide at him. She reached down and removed his hands from her sides and held them in hers, primarily to keep them off of her for the moment. "And what else were you going to try?" she asked after she caught her breath.

"Oh yeah" he said "if that didn't work I was going to try this" he said as he leaned down and kissed her.

"I think I would have preferred that" she said as the kiss ended

"Ill keep that in mind for next time" he said as he kissed her once again.

As the kiss came to an end she rolled over so that she was lying on her stomach and had her head resting on his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist and asked "so… what do you want to do today?"

Pulling her closed and resting his head on top of hers he said "I think we should go swimming, it's really hot out, what do you think?"

"Sounds good, we'll go out after we eat"

They laid there for another 20 minutes then pulled them selves apart to go get dressed. They met down stairs after changing; Harry was wearing a pair of board shorts he had bought when he and Hermione had gone shopping in the beginning of the summer. Hermione was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top with what looked like bathing suit straps coming out of the back of her shirt and tied in a bow in the back of her neck. They had a light brunch then went out to Hermione's back yard.

Hermione had gotten out some towels for them and was putting them on two chairs laid out by the pool. After setting their stuff out she walked over the edge of the pool and carefully dipped her toes into the water. The water wasn't too cold. When she turned around she stopped dead in her tracks Harry was in the middle of taking his shirt off.

She was very surprised she had spent almost the entire summer with him and had never seen him with his shirt off. She was staring at his muscular chest and abs.

"wow" she thought to herself as a small smile crept across her face.

Before he could notice her looking at him she turned to get ready to go swimming herself. She pulled her tank top off and Harry saw that she was wearing a two piece. It was now his turn to stare. As she finished pulling off her skirt Harry admired her flat stomach and trimmed legs. She how ever caught him looking

Her cheeks turned a little red as she asked through a smile "is there something I can help you with?"

"Huh?" he asked being knocked out of his trance "What, no I'm good" he said realizing he had been caught. With a small smile on his face he walked over to the edge of the pool about to jump in until Hermione spoke.

"You know" she walked over to him "You are allowed to look" she said her eyes never leaving his. He did notice though that she had turned a little pink in the cheeks. When she reached him she wrapped her arms around his waist "I mean we are going out, you should be allowed to look right?"

"You mean the way you were looking when I was taking my shirt off?" he asked looking at her. She opened her mouth to argue but he cut her off and said "Yeah, I saw you"

Not being able to think of a good come back she quickly pulled her arms from around his waist and pushed him into the pool. Unfortunately for her Harry had quick reflexes and pulled her into the water with him. When they came back to the surface he was still holding her close with his arms around her waist.

"Now what was that for?" he asked in mock anger

Looking around at the water all around her she looked at him "Well it seemed like a good idea at the time"

He laughed and pulled her into a kiss. "Still think it was a bad idea?" he asked as he placed soft kisses on her cheeks and neck.

"No actually, now that you mention it I think it may have been one of the best things I've ever done" she smiled at him as his lips captured hers in yet another kiss. He pulled her close until her body was pressed up against his. The kiss quickly changed from that of sweet and tender to one of great passion and need.

This time the kiss was different, for both of them. Her arms quickly wrapped around Harry's neck, holding on to his shoulders to steady her self. His hands had found her waist pulling her close as they moved up and down her back. This was an act of passion, the most passionate kiss they had shared by far. Her hands moved from around his neck to the sides of his face. She pulled back slightly caressing his cheeks with her thumbs looking deep into his eyes. She lowered her lips to his again. He ran his fingers through her wet hair and placed a hand on the back of her head to pull her closed to him.

Not feeling close enough to him she lifted her feet off of the bottom of the pool and wrapped her legs around his body. He quickly conformed to her new position by moving one hand to her butt to hold her where she was while the other arm was wrapped securely around her waist. As they kissed Harry slowly moved them over to the edge of the pool and gently moved around so that Hermione had her back resting on the wall of the pool. Her hands moved down from his face to his shoulders then traveled down to his chest where she let them linger for a few seconds then they went even further down to his stomach. As she ran her fingers over his toned abs she smiled into the kiss, causing it to break for just a moment. Bring her arms back around his neck their lips reconnected. Her hands were not the only ones to roam during this time. Harry removed his arm from around her back and moved his hand onto her flat stomach. He had expected her to burst into a fit of giggles as she generally did, but apparently she found nothing funny about this. His hand moved up from her stomach and stopped just below the fabric of her bathing suit top. Pausing for just a second almost to brace him self, he slowly moved his hand up until he was cupping her breast, rubbing over the fabric with his thumb. With this Hermione surprised both of them by moaning into his mouth. She broke away form the kiss and leaned her head back against the wall of the pool. Harry's hand had left her breast and moved slowly up her chest over the exposed part not covered by the bathing suit then up to cheek. Harry looked into her eyes and gently pulled her forward into another kiss. His hand slowly made its way back down to its prior position. Except for this time when he reached the top of the fabric he gently slid his fingers underneath it, this time taking her bare breast in his palm and gently rubbing his thumb over her erect nipple. This caused her not only to moan but her body to give an involuntary shudder.

This seemed to bring her back to her senses. She broke away from the kiss and reached down and took his hand in hers. "Harry..." she said barely above a whisper her voice much deeper than normal. Taking a deep breath she went on "Harry, if we don't stop this now…. Were not going to be able to"

"I'm sorry" he said quickly letting go of her. He thought that he had upset her stupid idiot! He thought to him self

"No Harry, don't apologize" she said with a grin on her face "it was defiantly enjoyed..." she had stopped looking at him in the eye and he saw her face turn pink. " I just don't think now, is the right time…to….to ….well to keep this up" she said finally looking back at him. See that he still looked like he felt he had done something wrong she leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips.

"What was that for?" he asked as the kiss came to an end

"Just so you know that it was…ok, just ….its not the right time" she told him.

"So you're ok?" he asked

"I am better than ok" she smiled

"Good" he smiled back. Catching her eyes with his, he looked deep into them for a few seconds "I love you" he whispered

"I love you too" she whispered back as their lips met in a very tender kiss.

They spent the rest of the afternoon swimming around, playing sitting by the pool and talking. They didn't come in until the sun had begun to fade. When they came in Hermione's parents already had dinner started, so they each headed up and took showers, Harry had finished first so he went back down and helped with dinner.

Hermione took a rather long shower, partly because she had gotten a pretty bad sun burn on her shoulders and the cool water felt good against her skin. When she got out she wrapped her self in a robe and went into her room to change. When she walked in she heard a small tap on the window, looking over she saw Ron's owl outside her window. Walking over she opened the window "Well hello, pig" she said as she took the note off his leg it had 'Harry and Hermione' written on it in Ron's untidy writing. "I don't have any water for you in here but let me take you over to Harry's room I'm sure Hedwig wouldn't mind sharing for a bit" she held out her arm to him and the small bird jumped on. She carried him over to Harry's room and set him on Hedwig's open cage. "Now, you two play nice" she said before leaving the room.

"Mione! Dinner is ready" Harry yelled up the stairs.

"Oh shoot" she said to herself "Ok Ill be right down" she yelled "I just have to get dressed".

Hermione quickly grabbed the closet thing to her which happened to be her pajamas. She changed grabbed the letter from Ron put it in her pocket and ran down stairs. When she came down Harry had just finished setting the table and her mother was bringing out the food. They sat down to eat, and had fun trying to explain Quidditch to Hermione's parents. A conversation she had had many times before with her parents but she didn't know enough about muggle sports to compare properly. This is where Harry came in. He was able to get them to actually understand it, almost.

About thirty minutes later and after Harry and Hermione had both had three helpings the food was gone and Hermione's mom said "Well, unless you two are going to be eating the plates I think we're done"

"Oh sorry" Harry said having just realized how much he ate

"Don't be sorry dear, I just hope that it filled you up" Mrs. Granger said

"I guess swimming just made us really hungry" Hermione said getting up to help her mother clear away the dishes.

"I know I was only joking hunny, don't worry about that, your father and I can handle this" she said taking the plate from her daughter. Getting close so only her daughter could hear what she was saying she said "you and Harry can go and …. swim some more" she had a grin on her face and winked at Hermione.

Hermione was shocked to her this from her mother " Mum!" she whispered with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"Go" she said with a smile pointing Harry and Hermione in to the living room.

They went into the living room as told. Harry sat on the couch and Hermione went and sat next to him. They looked at each other for a few moments then Harry leaned in and kissed her.

After a second or two Hermione pulled away and said "Ron sent us a letter, I almost forgot"

Harry looked at her for a moment then asked "kissing me makes you think of Ron?"

"Well no," she said in a don't be stupid tone "Actually it's in my pocket and when you leaned over you pushed the corner of the envelop into my leg, the stabbing feeling actually reminded me of Ron" she finished smiling at him, silently making fun of him for getting the wrong idea.

Catching her tone he smiled then asked "ok, what did it say?"

"Well I don't know it was addressed to both of us so I figured I'd wait for you to open it" she said as she handed him the letter. He opened the letter and Hermione laid her head on his shoulder. Holding it so they could both read it he read;

'Harry, Hermione,

Good news, we will be back on the first. Mum and dad say that you can come as soon as we get back. I don't know how long it take to fly to Hermione's house so I don't know if pig will get this to you in time, hopefully he does. Just send your response with him after we get back so that he only has to go to the borrow. Well see you guys soon, hope your having fun (not too much without me though) see you soon.

Ron

PS. Happy Birthday Harry! I don't know if it's early or late but Ill give you your present when you get here.

"Great" Harry said putting the letter back in the envelope "we can go to the borrow as soon as the day after tomorrow." Looking down at Hermione he saw that she did not look as happy about this as he was "What's wrong? Do you not want to go?"

"Of course I want to go. It just means that we're going to have to tell Ron about us, I'm just not sure how he is going to react" she said picking her head up off his shoulder and looking at him.

"Yeah I've thought about that too" Harry said to her. Thinking for a moment about Ron getting up and storming out of the room once they tell him. Shaking his head slightly he said "lets worry about that later"

"Yeah that's a good Idea" she said having just pictured the same scenario in her head.

"I know something we can talk about that's more fun than telling Ron"

"And what's that?" he asked

"Well, Your birthday. What do you want to do tomorrow?" she asked

"Oh yeah that's much better" he said with a smile. He leaned back on the couch pulling Hermione with him wrapping his arms around her. "Well you see, I was hopping my girlfriend would plan something really great, but she didn't the only thing Id like to do would be to go down to the ministry and see if they could squeeze in my apparition test" he said.

"Oh well you should break up with her straight away" Hermione said in a +

0+would be serious tone.

"Yeah. Yeah I think I will" Harry said in a rather depressed tone. "Since I have no plans and now no girlfriend, you want to do something with me tomorrow?" he asked trying not to laugh.

"Ok Mr. Dramatic very cute. As a matter of fact I do have plans for tomorrow I made them last week. I just wanted to see what you would say." She said swatting him on the shoulder

"See" he said with a smile "I knew you wouldn't let me down" he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "And what are these plans of yours?" he asked

"It's a surprise" she smiled kissing him again.

"Come on! Tell me" he said as he quickly changed their positions so that he was sitting on top of her pining her to the couch.

"No" she said rather defiantly

"Ok ill have to force it out of you I see" as he slowly began to tickle her.

She tried her hardest not to laugh. Looking into his eyes she kept her cool until he moved his hand to the side of her stomach, the spot that he had learned was her most ticklish. She hadn't laughed at first, but he quickly moved his hands under her shirt and the direct contact with her skin was too much for her. She burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

"Ok! Ok!" she screamed "Ill tell you"

He stopped tickling her but stayed sitting on top of her. "So, let's have it" he said smiling down at her.

"Ok first were going to the ministry for your eleven o'clock appointment. Then we have lunch and head to Diagon alley for some shopping then finally a nice little dinner at a restaurant by Gringotts" she told him after she regained her composure.

"Wow, You really did plan it didn't you?" he asked "Thank you" he said with a smile as he leaned down and kissed her lovingly.

"You didn't expect me to do nothing for my boyfriends seventeenth birthday did you?" she asked as the kiss ended.

"Well I don't know" he said truthfully "I never had anyone plan something for my birthday so I never really thought about it. I was joking earlier when I said I was expecting you to plan something" he leaned down again and just before his lips met hers he whispered "I love you".

Hermione's parents always chose the wrong moments to walk in. so of course they chose just now to enter the room. Harry quickly moved off of Hermione thinking to himself how bad it looked. Why couldn't they have come in when they were talking or even when he was tickling her?

This had become a rather common occurrence in the Granger home over the last few weeks so neither of them said anything. It was always the same Hermione looked from one parent to the other her mother was trying to hide a smile and her father looked slightly sick. After an uncomfortable silence Hermione told her parents of Ron's letter and they all decided that they would go over on the second to give the Weasley's time to rest from their trip.

After watching TV for a couple of hours Harry and Hermione excused themselves to go to bed. As they were walking up the stairs Harry put his arm around Hermione's shoulders. He felt her wince at his touch "what's wrong?" he asked.

"I got a sun burn on my shoulders and back today" she told him as they reached her room.

"Ill rub lotion on it for you if you'd like" he offered as he closed the door to her room.

"I'd like that" she said with a smile and handed him the lotion.

"Ok pull your shirt up and lay on the bed" he told her pouring some lotion on his hands.

She laid on her stomach and pulled her back of her shirt up. She bunched it up around her neck then quickly learned that that was burned too. Seeing what it was that she was feeling he said " hey your neck is pretty bad too, why don't you just take the shirt off that way I can put it on your neck too without getting it all over your shirt" after it came out he realized what he had said

She picked her head up off the bed and looked at him. Did he just say what she thought he did? "Did you just ask me to take my shirt off?" she asked with smile "Nice try Potter, real smooth" she said with a grin trying to lighten the tense mood that just fell between them.

"I didn't mean it like that" he said quickly. She was joking about it so he figured she was ok with what he had said "and besides If I wanted to get your shirt off Id do it myself".

Her eyes widened as she sat up "What!" she asked with a shocked expression that kept trying to turn its self into a grin, but she wasn't going to let that happen.

"You heard me" he said with an evil grin "I'm joking" he said after a few seconds "Now are we going to do this or not?" he asked.

"Ok turn around then so I can take my shirt off" she said. He stood there staring at her in disbelief for a second. Then slowly turned around with a smile on his face.

"Ok I'm ready" she said. He turned around and couldn't move for a second. There on the bed lay a topless Hermione. She was lying on her stomach with her arms to her sides. He couldn't see anything, but for some odd reason the fact that she was topless was making him a bit warm. She noticed the reaction she got for him and smiled to herself.

He regained his composer and moved over towards the bed. This had started off as a sweet offer but was quickly turning into more than that. Taking a deep breath he sat down next to her on the bed. Warming the lotion by rubbing his hands together a few times he reached down and laid them on her back. The cool lotion felt so good on her skin and she let out a small moan. Harry began moving his hands around her back rubbing in the lotion. He covered her back then moved on to her neck. When all the lotion was rubbed in he lightly kissed the back of her neck and said "there you go love"

"That's it?" she asked a little disappointed "I was really enjoying that"

"Ok Ill keep going" he said getting more lotion on his hands. Touching her bare skin was driving him crazy. He wanted to kiss her but was afraid that it would make her uncomfortable considering her state of dress.

This time he let his hands roam all over her back. He had begun giving her a massage that she was thoroughly enjoying. He had massaged her shoulders her lower back and her arms. When he was done he softly ran his hands down her arms to her palms he kissed each one then placed a soft kiss in the center of her back that sent shivers down her spine.

"Ok" he said "I'm done you can put your shirt back on." He got up and turned around so that she could get dressed.

She reached for her shirt and quickly put it back on. Getting up from the bed she walked up behind him and slid her arms around his waist. She kissed him on the neck "thank you" she whispered.

It had taken all he had in him to not do anything while she was on the bed but now that she was dressed he spun around wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a passionate kiss. She moved her arms to around his neck and pulled him close. He moved his hands from her waist to under her shirt and began to run his hands up her back.

Feeling that this was quickly taking a turn towards somewhere they had visited that afternoon Hermione backed away and in a teasing voice she said "Now that part of the evening is over Mr."

"Sorry" he said stepping back but not letting go of her. "You just seem to have this power over me that drives me crazy"

"Yeah," she whispered pulling him into a hug. After a minute or two she said "And believe me when I say I love it."

He laughed and exhaled. "Yeah, I figured you would. Come on lets get some sleep" he said kissing her on the cheek and pulling her over to the bed.

Together they climbed in cuddled and fell asleep surprisingly fast.