Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter. Nah, I'm just testing to see if anyone reads these at this point.

Chapter 27

One week into the summer holidays, Hermione Granger introduced Harry Potter to the wonderful world of cinema. The first few days had been nothing but enjoyable – being welcomed with open arms by the Grangers, trips to Sapphire Park and the library, re-acquainting himself with the kitchen, it was all amazing. Then, it got even better when Hermione practically kicked his door down one morning.

"Harry!" She banged on his bedroom door, prompting him to sit bolt upright in a panic. "Harry, wake up, I've got something for you!"

"Whassgoinon?" He grumbled, lifting his face from his pillow and fumbling for his glasses.

"Can I come in?"

"No!" He groaned. He managed to sit upright just in time for Hermione to waltz in.

"Good morning, Harry!" She said in a singsong voice, plopping down on the edge of his bed.

"I could have sworn I said no…"

"Oh, hush. You're going to like this."

"More than I like sleep?"

"Yes."

"Doubtful." Harry sighed, closing his eyes and leaning back into his pillow.

"You know what? Fine." Hermione huffed, leaping off the bed and turning her back on him. "I thought you might like to watch A Few Good Men but clearly you value your precious sleep…" She trailed off temptingly.

Harry was moments away from resuming his peaceful slumber when Hermione's words hit him. He snapped his eyes open and practically tumbled out of bed.

"Did you say watch?" He gasped, hastily clambering to his feet. Hermione turned back to face him, grinning mischievously. "Did you say watch?" He repeated, feeling a smile of his own creep up.

"Perhaps." She held up something that made Harry's eyes widen to the size of saucers.

"They made a movie of the greatest play of all time?" Harry walked over, eagerly wrenching the VHS tape out of her hands.

"William Shakespeare would like a word." Hermione rolled her eyes as she took the movie back. "And George Bernard Shaw, and Arthur Miller, and – "

"Alright, alright!" Harry sighed. "But, seriously, is this for real?"

"It's for real. Would you like to watch a movie?" She asked, holding it up enticingly. Harry grinned.

"I'd love that." He replied, and Hermione returned his smile before grabbing his hand and dragging him downstairs. "Morning, Mum! Morning, Dad!" She called out to her parents who were getting ready for work.

"Good morning, you two." Mrs. Granger grinned as the pair ran past her, barely stifling a giggle at Harry staggering along and looking rather disheveled. "Hermione, perhaps you should let Harry change out of his pajamas?"

"Comb his hair?" Mr. Granger offered, glancing up from his newspaper with a smirk.

"Brush his teeth?"

"Wake up?"

"Oh…" Hermione stopped her mad dash and looked at Harry, who glimpsed himself in a mirror on the wall and cringed. "Meet you down here?"

"Be right back." He grinned, taking another glance at his askew glasses and his particularly unruly-looking hair, and that was saying something.

After a few minutes of trying to make himself look presentable, he returned to the living room just in time to wave goodbye to the Grangers. Hermione grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to the couch, sitting next to each other and staring expectantly at the television set in front of them.

"Do you know who Tom Cruise is?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head. "He's an actor, and he plays the main lawyer."

"Lieutenant Kaffee." Harry said automatically.

"Yes, him. He's a very good actor, I've seen him in some other films."

"Like what?" Harry asked, his curiosity piqued. "Do you think I'd like those films?"

Hermione looked pleasantly surprise at his interest and nodded. "If you enjoy this movie-watching session, maybe we can watch some other ones this summer. I bet you'd like The Outsiders. Tom Cruise is in it. We'd have to borrow it from the library, though."

Harry grinned, excited at the prospect of watching all kinds of movies. He had never seen one from beginning to end, occasionally catching glances at the Dursleys' television and fragments of whatever the Grangers would flip on, so settling in on the couch to watch one in its entirety seemed like a thrill ride. Hermione must have caught onto his exhilaration and beamed at him before clicking PLAY.

Harry couldn't stop himself from whispering lines he remembered from the play in sync with the actors, earning several elbows from Hermione. Each time he was silently admonished, he smiled sheepishly before returning his attention to the movie – only to mutter another quote under his breath a few minutes later.

Eventually, the movie concluded, and Harry and Hermione sat on the couch in a content silence.

"Thank you, Hermione." Harry finally broke the lull. "I loved that."

"I did too. Although, I could have done without the know-it-all on my left whispering to himself like a lunatic every five minutes."

Harry blushed and ducked his head. "I'm sorry."

"No you're not." Hermione sighed, before smiling at him. "And you shouldn't be. You've never made me apologize for being passionate about school or books. You shouldn't apologize to me over a play that you happen to love."

Harry returned the smile, turning his head to meet her eyes. In doing so, he caught sight of his arm – draped over the back of the couch behind his best friend. Awkwardly, he pulled it back to his side, trying to suppress a blush.

"What would you like to do now?" Hermione asked, getting to her feet. "It's not terribly nice outside, so I don't think the park is the best idea." She frowned, looking out the window at a rather dreary gray sky. "It's probably going to rain soon, I doubt it's worth it to go for a walk anywhere."

"Another movie?" Harry offered with a shrug. Hermione brightened and immediately dove into the stack of VHS tapes her parents had accumulated.

The pair eventually settled on Murder on the Orient Express. Harry was excited because it was based on a book by Agatha Christie. Even if he hadn't read this particular tale, Hermione had shown him a few of her other works before: Death on the Nile, The ABC Murders, and his personal favorite, Halloween Party. He suspected he enjoyed that one in particular because he could relate to miserable Halloweens.

"I love this story!" Hermione was bursting with excitement as she inserted the tape. "I've read the book half a dozen times by now. Even though I know the ending I still love it because it's so beautifully done. The characters are so great, the premise, the dialogue, but the best part really is the ending." Hermione rambled in excitement as they returned to the couch, waiting for the movie to begin.

"Well, don't spoil it. This is my first mystery movie, after all." Harry grinned at a now smirking Hermione.

"Hmm…" She mused, sarcastically stroking her chin. "And if I did spoil it?"

"I'd go get the sword of Gryffindor from Dumbledore's office." Harry narrowed his eyes, earning a snort from Hermione. "Oh, you're laughing now, but just you wait."

"Well, you're going to love it." She said, turning to face him and placing an elbow on the back of the couch so she could prop her head up with her hand. "What I like most about the ending is how they MMPH!"

She cried out in surprise as Harry immediately clamped his hand over her mouth. "MMPH!" Hermione repeated incoherently, trying to pry his hand off of her face.

"Ma'am, please be quiet, I'm trying to watch a movie." It was Harry's turn to smirk, turning his eyes to the television but keeping his hand firmly on Hermione's face. His bushy-haired friend let out a few garbled squeals of protest and swatted him on the arm a few times to no avail.

After a few minutes, Harry gingerly removed his hand from a very flustered Hermione's face with a self-satisfied smirk. She tried to shoot him a glare, but it was rendered ineffective by her deep blush, which only made things funnier for Harry. They each returned their attention to the movie, and for the second time Harry didn't notice that his arm had found its way around her shoulders until the film concluded.

"Wow, I'm glad you didn't spoil that ending." Harry grinned smugly as he leaned back into the couch, lacing his fingers behind his head. Hermione huffed at him, crossing her arms.

"That was excessive." She muttered, both scowling and blushing. "I don't know why I didn't bite your hand or something…" She trailed off.

"You're too nice." Harry said, still feeling and looking rather arrogant.

"You think I won't go ballistic on you? I must have hit over the last two years." Hermione offered defiantly.

"Yeah but those are usually in good fun. You're too nice to do something as serious as – ow!" Harry clutched his nose as Hermione whacked him with a pillow as hard as she could. "Really? While I'm defenseless?" He groaned, turning to glare at Hermione.

"You were saying something about being too nice?" She smirked mischievously.

"You're going down, Granger." Harry grinned as he grabbed a pillow and leapt to his feet.

"Come and get it, Harry Potter. Unless you're too scared."

"You wish."

An epic battle ensued. It was one of agility and dexterity, strength and resilience, determination and tenacity. Harry found himself hurdling an armchair to avoid a particularly vicious swing of Hermione's pillow. A minute later, Hermione ducked one of his blows with surprising nimbleness before whacking him with a brutal uppercut. Before Hermione could gloat, however, he retaliated with a pair of devastating body blows with a swiftness that would make Muhammad Ali proud. No matter how hard either of them were hit, the other refused to concede.

"Stand down." Hermione growled as she backed Harry into a corner, literally. They'd been attacking each other with pillows for the better part of half an hour, darting through every room in the house. Currently, they were in Harry's room after he'd chased her up the stairs. Unfortunately, she'd turned the tables on him and now he had nowhere to run. "Final warning." She grinned impishly, raising her pillow.

"I could do this all day." Harry retorted, allowing Hermione to swing her pillow at him only to grab it and wrench it out of her hands.

"Not fair!" Hermione whined as her sole weapon was ripped away from her.

"I'm quite the fan of disarming, you know." Harry smirked triumphantly, walking out of the corner of his room towards Hermione, who gingerly stepped backwards. He brandished his two pillows eagerly.

"I understand you may want to attack me after I beat the snot out of you for the last thirty minutes." Hermione offered a small smile, and Harry scoffed. "But I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

"Too much mercy has often resulted in further crimes," Harry knew his smile looked positively evil, "crimes which were fatal to innocent victims who need not have been victims if justice had been put first and mercy second."

Hermione's jaw hit the floor. "There is no way you just quoted Agatha Christie to me."

"I'm capable of surprises."

"So am I."

"What do you – MMPH!" Harry staggered backwards. Hermione had reached around her back while Harry had been gloating and had managed to wallop him while he wasn't expecting it. "Well then." Harry groaned as he adjusted his glasses. "I suppose that's fair." He admitted before winding up for a blow of his own, and the pair resumed their clash.

A few minutes later, they found themselves back in the living room, dodging and swinging their pillows. "You're too stubborn to quit, aren't you?" Hermione panted as she hit Harry in the back of the legs.

"So are you." Harry smirked as he ducked another attack.

"Truce?"

"Truce."

Instantly, the pair dropped their pillows, collapsing on the couch and breathing heavily.

"I might try and convince Wood to use half-hour pillow fights as conditioning." Harry chuckled. "I haven't been this exhausted in a while."

"Why did you have to ruin a perfectly good moment by mentioning Quidditch of all things?" Hermione sighed, playfully throwing him an elbow. "Speaking of Quidditch, you're going to quit this year, right?"

"You're funny." Harry smirked, earning a sarcastic huff from his best friend.

"One of these days you're going to fall a hundred feet off your broom and I'm just going to say I told you so." She frowned before leaning her head on Harry's shoulder.

"After crying your eyes out, sure." Harry smirked, and Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"You've been awfully smug all day. I think movies are a bad influence on you." She retorted, nestling even closer.

"Good thing I have the best influence I could ever have right here." Harry grinned. Hermione lifted her head and beamed at him.

"Do you mean that?"

"Of course I mean it." Hermione smiled contentedly and leaned her head back on his shoulder. "I mean, you're the best study partner I could ask for, you've almost single-handedly made me one of the best in our year."

"Stop it." He could tell Hermione was blushing without even looking at her.

"And you never break school rules. Except for the time you smuggled a dragon, tried to get the Sorcerer's Stone, brewed Polyjuice Potion in a toilet stall – "

"Oh, honestly!" Hermione huffed, getting to her feet. Harry snickered to himself, but his entire right side suddenly felt much colder.

"What do you want to do now?" He asked, leaning back into the couch cushions. "Got any other good movies – "

"We are not watching another movie today, Harry Potter." Hermione narrowed her eyes before holding her hand out. He took it and let her pull him off the couch. "I'm actually rather hungry."

The two trotted into the kitchen, and were halfway through preparing sandwiches when they heard a tapping at the window. Eagerly, Hermione dashed over and opened it, allowing a ragged-looking owl to come tumbling in.

"Errol!" Harry said excitedly, running over to untie the letters and package attached to Ron Weasley's owl.

"What does it say?" Hermione asked as he skimmed the letter.

"He's wishing me an early birthday because he doesn't want to risk sending Errol so far."

"Are they going somewhere?"

"Yeah, they won this Grand Galleon thing, so they're taking a holiday to Egypt to visit Ron's brother Bill."

"Egypt?"

"It's in Africa."

"I know it's in Africa, you prat!" Hermione grumbled, swatting Harry on the shoulder.

"Anyway," he smirked at Hermione's vexation, "he sent me some sweets and a Sneakoscope."

"Ooh, I've heard about these!" Hermione stared in amazement. "You shouldn't bring it to Potions, though, or it'll go off the second Snape walks in." They both shared a laugh at that and then proceeded with their lunch.

"I have to say…" Harry smirked as he popped a Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "This is a pretty good birthday gift. I'd like to see you try and top it."

"Is that a challenge?" Hermione waggled her eyebrows.

"You've got one month to top…erm, candy." Harry chuckled.

"I think I'm up to the task." She grinned. "But I'll have you know I've already ordered your present."

"No way." Harry gaped in surprise. "Do you ever think about anything besides me and books?"

"Sometimes I watch movies." It was her turn to smirk, and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well, now I'm excited. I still use the Snitch you got me almost every day."

"I know." Hermione huffed. "I hear its wings fluttering around the house whenever you open that bloody box."

"Is this another gift that irritates you incessantly?"

"No comment." Hermione blushed and averted her eyes.

"Ah." Harry smirked. "Well, I can't wait. Any gift that comes from you will be perfect, I'm sure of it."

Hermione's blush deepened, much to Harry's amusement, until she suddenly stood up, sending her chair sliding backwards into the wall. Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise – and confusion – as she walked over to him. At first he thought he'd made a misstep, but then Hermione threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. Harry sat dumbstruck in his chair, trying to remember what day of the week it was as liquid fire spread across his body from where her lips had met his skin.

"You're too sweet, Harry Potter."

A/N: Everyone loves movies. Everyone loves Harry and Hermione. Everyone loves talking about birthdays. Ta-da! The chapter everyone should love. I'm just kidding, I know this chapter is not for everyone, but I hope you at least somewhat enjoyed it nonetheless. It's just a nice bit of fluff to brighten your days as the summer progresses. I'm very excited for the next chapter, personally.

To my blessed followers, favorite-rs, and reviewers, you guys rock! The kind words on the last chapter really meant a lot because I was actually rather unsure about it, but the reception absolutely made my day. Thank you all, so much! And stay safe!