Noise and Kisses

By Caiti and Court

Chapter 7: Dirty Little Secret

-- -- --

"Harry! Harry!"

Harry looked up from his cauldron, which was emitting a thick, putrid smoke.

"Wha- Oh, bloody hell!" he groaned, as Hermione attempted to recover his seemingly useless Polyjuice potion.

"You need to pay more attention to the time, Harry," she stated coolly, wafting the air, "You've been stirring your potion for nearly twenty minutes now when you were only supposed to for five!"

"Uh- yeah. Sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, it's your grade," she paused, noticing the annoyed look on his face, "But- let's see if I can do something to fix it up for you, okay?" she added reassuringly, smiling slightly.

The two sat in near-silence for the rest of the class period. Snape had readily allowed for a lab partner change after the incident with Ron and the Benzoate potion almost a week earlier. Hermione was extremely grateful in accepting Harry as her new partner, although slightly uneasy, as Harry had been somewhat distant towards her since their visit in the Hospital Wing. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out why, not now at least. For the first time in a long time, Harry was the closest thing, besides Draco, that she had to a friend and she wasn't ready to lose him.

When Potions was over, Harry quickly packed his bag and rushed out of the classroom before Hermione had even finished putting away the un-used ingredients. She sighed worriedly before glancing over at Draco, who was slowly making his way towards the dungeon door to leave. Hermione suddenly perked up and hurriedly but neatly packed away her things in her bag, before busying out of the classroom to catch up with Draco.

By the time she left, the dungeon corridors were crowded and there was no sign of Draco anywhere. She shrugged disappointedly and trudged up the corridor towards her next class. Before she even left the dungeon, however, she was pulled into a broom cupboard swiftly.

"Wha-," but she was silenced by a passionate kiss. She knew immediately who it was, "Draco," she breathed as they broke away, "I missed you."

"You saw me in Potions less than five minutes ago!"

"Yes, but I missed you," she flirted, pulling him into a tight hug and another kiss.

He willingly kissed her back, relieved that she was finally able to trust him completely. She held onto him tightly as he pulled her closer, further exploring her mouth with his tongue. Hermione felt comfortable with him, safe. He didn't kiss aggressively like she had imagined in the past. It was gentle; sweet.

They stayed that way for awhile before breaking away again. He wrapped his arms around her more tightly than before as she snuggled in close to his chest. Leaning his chin on her head, he stroked her hair while she listened to the combination of his shallow breathing and steady heartbeat in his chest.

"So, how did your potion turn out today? Brilliant, I assume," Draco asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Mhm…"

The beginning conversation was slightly strange as they had to do the entire normal couple thing secretively in a broom closet. Nevertheless, Draco pressed on, "What's got Potter's bollocks in a twist?"

She pulled her head away slightly and shot him a disapproving look.

"Sorry…uh- what's been bothering," he paused, "Harry lately?"

She laid her head back onto his chest and sighed, "I don't know. He's been acting so strange ever since he first visited me last week. I couldn't possibly have done something since then…nothing I know of at least."

"He's probably just got his mind on other things. You know; school, Quidditch, saving the world-"

"Yeah, but it's more than that," she ignored his snide remark, "I've known him long enough to know that it's more than that."

"Well, what else could it be?"

"No idea."

-- -- --

Over the next few days, Hermione was increasingly trying to pack up the courage to ask Harry why he had been so distracted and distant lately. It wasn't quite as easy as she had originally thought it would be. She'd already been through two Transfiguration classes, one Charms class and about four different meals in the Great Hall attempting to find out and still, nothing. As the days went by, it became harder and harder to talk to Harry as he was always miraculously busy with something else and unable to speak to Hermione. This annoyed her yet increased her concern because now she knew that it was something that she had done, and she still had no idea as to what it was.

It wasn't until later the next day, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, that she made some sort of progress.

"Harry, you have to enunciate!"

"Hermione, why do you have to be so bloody-"

"What- what exactly, Harry?"

"Nothing...nevermind," he noticeably sounded disgruntled.

Hermione took a deep breath, "Look, Harry, you've been avoiding me all week, and when you weren't doing that you were being a complete wanker! All I want to know, is why? What have I done to make you hate me so bloody much…again!" she didn't mean to blurt it out nor be so harsh but she was running low with patience and needed to know.

"Where exactly have you been all week, Hermione?" he asked disdainfully.

She just stared at him, unsure of what he was talking about.

Harry shook his head, "Forget it-"

"No! No, I will not! Why, Harry?"

"This is not the place," he said, as he turned to leave.

"Then when?"

"Not now."

She groaned as he walked away.

"Still trying to shag more blokes, Hermione? Thought you would've stopped with Terry Boot, but Harry? Who knew you'd sink so low as to shag my best friend?"

"Not now, Ron," she spat, feeling her stomach tighten.

He smirked, "Hmm, never knew those two words were in your vocabulary- not together at least!" A few Gryffindor males around him chuckled. They never really thought of Ron's behavior as odd because they had naturally assumed that he was just rightfully angry about Hermione shagging half the school.

"You're not worth my time," Hermione managed to choke out, fighting back her tears, "S-so stop trying!"

Ron hesitantly left her alone for the rest of the class, glad that he had gotten some sort of reaction out of her.

When the period was over, Hermione almost ran out of the room, praying that Draco was in a nearby broom closet.

-- -- --

"Hermione! Wha-what's wrong?" Draco asked as she practically collapsed into his arms.

"Ron," she whispered, "He-"

Draco suddenly stiffened, a look of pure hatred and anger on his face, "Where is he? Where did he go? I'll curse him!"

"Draco-"

"Hermione, he can't keep doing this! Look at you; you're near faint!"

"I'm fine…really," she looked up at him reassuringly, "He just- he just still gets to me that's all."

"What did he say this time?" he asked, his facial expression gentler.

"Same as every other time…remarks about me shagging half the school. But this time he mentioned Harry," she paused for a moment, "That's really what I need to talk to you about."

"Potter?"

"Yes, he said something to me- nothing bad!" she interjected as Draco's face immediately contorted into anger.

"Well, what exactly did he say?" Draco asked trying to remain calm.

"He asked me where I've been all week. When I had no idea as to what he was referring to, he went on about how it wasn't the right time to talk about it."

Draco took Hermione's hands into his and after a moment of silence he asked anxiously, "Do you think he might know about us?"

She shook her head, "He couldn't possibly!" she looked up into Draco's eyes, "Could he?"

"I don't know."

"But- but we've been so careful!" Hermione exclaimed frantically, still holding onto Draco's hands, "There's no way he could know unless he's been following me after hours, which I highly doubt. And after classes-"

"Is a possibility-"

"Yes, but he's never around after class. He's always running away and avoiding me, you know that!"

"How else could he know?"

"Well, we don't know that he does…"

"Let's not worry about it so much then, love," he said, leaning in and kissing her on the forehead, "Not until we know for certain."

Hermione nodded and leaned into Draco's chest, still holding onto one of his hands, while the other snaked around her lower back to pull her closer.

"Alright…until we know…"

-- -- --

Even after her talk with Draco, Hermione was still uneasy about Harry's knowledge of their relationship. She couldn't think of anything else that could have made him so angry. Although she didn't mention it anymore to Draco, she couldn't help but constantly think about whether or not Harry knew and how exactly he had figured it out. Maybe they weren't as careful as they'd thought.

Just as she arrived at Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures, Harry still on her mind, she walked right into her gangly ex-boyfriend.

"Just can't stay away from me, eh, Hermione?"

She ignored him and headed straight for Harry, who was standing a few feet away, hoping to find out more about his knowledge of her and Draco.

"Har-"

"Malfoy was right…you are filthy," Ron called over to her, his voice dripping with malice.

With three strides and one swift stroke of her wrist, Hermione's hand connected with Ron's right cheek, a bright scarlet mark lingering on his face. Everyone froze; not because of the loud noise that had occurred from the slap, but because of the fact that that action had actually just taken place.

Ron was speechless. For the first time that year, he had absolutely nothing to say to Hermione. He just stood there as she turned away from him, smiling to herself.

When she looked up she saw Harry, a look of utter confusion on his face. They stared at each other for a moment before Harry breathed, "We need to talk."

Hermione nodded and with Hagrid's permission, followed Harry back up to the Gryffindor common room.