My Beloved Ferret
by StopBlowingHolesInMyShips/Krystallia

Chapter Four
Ginny's Distress

AN: Operation: Confiscate the Ferret is now in action. With added shippy goodness for any Harmonians who are peeking in here--I KNOW YOU ARE OUT THERE! Sexual tension, how fuuun. cough Anyways...

If you ask why they're together...it's because it's convenient and it will later give me a plot devices. And as most fanfickers know, plot devices are helpful things )
Anyway, I needed Hermy to get a new boyfriend and didn't feel like expanding on a lesser character. So I just put her with Harry.

There is a lot of...drama...in this chapter. Lol. To those allergic to drama here is a free muffin. Enjoy even if your tongue swells up Oo

The mood kinda quickly goes from funny to Oh-Em-Gee! The Melodrama!

I'll be better next chappie, methinks.

Chapter Five
Operation: Confiscate the Ferret

OPERATION CONFISCATE THE FERRET.
Most people who have spiffy titles like that for their missions are stars of spy action movies, or are spies living a life like an action movie. If it is a movie, there is usually a scene of the spy in question preparing with their spy gear, snapping on their belts, loading their guns, etc. For Hermione, it meant throwing on her new, black Hogwarts robes, pinning her hair back so she would look professional, and adjusting and wearing her shiny Head Girl badge to make her seem even more official. And just to make matters more intimidating for the bratty second years who refused to hand back Cocoa and who refused to accept the fact that ferrets are not imaginary, she took the Head Boy (who was Harry) as well. But first, she made him comb his hair.

She marched down the stairs, looking both regal and business-like, her hand clasped firm around Harry's wrist (he seemed quite confused that she was basically dragging him down to the Hufflepuff common room). They came to the arched brick opening of the tunnel which would open and become a hole in the wall that was Hufflepuff common room.

"Pickle," she stated clearly. The gray brick wall opened from the inside out. Since she was still grabbing Harry and she was much shorter, he knocked his head on the ceiling of the wretched tunnel a few times, but he was all right after she spat, "Would you like me to rub it and kiss it for you?" (When he teased her by saying "Yes", she scowled eerily and her eyes nearly turned red, so he shut his mouth tight and just continued to follow her lead.)

Hermione cleared her throat. She looked a bit conceited with her head held up so high, but Harry didn't mind--he was used to it, and he knew what she really thought of herself, so he didn't bother--and it just did more to scare the little Hufflepuffs, so it was good. "Would Laine Maple, Amber Abbott, Peaches Andcream, Sunny Midnight, and Flo...Floflo...all please come here? With their ferret, please." Hermione gave a Crest-White-Strips smile and batted her eyelashes at a nearby second-year boy, then winked suggestively. The boy turned red and nodded, grinning, then scampered off to fetch them.

He must've really liked Hermione, because within seconds the reluctant fivesome were assembled on a big yellow couch before the seventh years, ferret and all. Peaches, Sunny, and Laine were all slouching considerably and Flo looked depressed--then again, she was usually depressed--but like Hermione, Amber was all business. Harry could sense the clashing personalities all the way from Trelawney's room.

"Thank you, Eduardo," smiled Hermione mock-sweetly, patting the boy on the head. His eager face fell, and he walked away, sighing. "Anyway, hello, children." Harry could hear the contempt in her voice when she nearly vomited the word children. He tried very hard to hold in the laughter that was creeping around the edge of his stomach, tickling his ribs, and inching up his windpipe.

"I am here to save you from a lot of trouble." Amber stared at the speaking Hermione unblinkingly, her lips quavering as she tried to look innocent and unsurprised. "As you surely remember from your Hogwarts letter"--here Hermione slapped Harry on the shoulder blade as she slid an arm around his neck, so he pulled out the letter from his robes hurriedly--"it tells you that you may bring one pet to Hogwarts and it may be an owl, cat, or a toad."

Hermione stared pointedly at Harry as if he was supposed to say something at this moment, and cleared her throat impatiently. So he coughed and then sheepishly blurted out, "And, uh, you have a ferret...uh, yea."

Harry could've sworn that Hermione's eyeballs were shooting little grenades that were going to blow his head open, any second now, but she continued talking in a voice as sweet as a spoonful of sugar.

"Yes, you have a ferret. Which I am sad to say, I must confiscate." Again she looked at Harry, who looked back questioningly, and then she gave an approving little nod, so he added:

"Yeah. Um, sorry about that."

Hermione sighed exasperatedly and thunked him on the back again, nearly knocking the wind out of him ("OH!" he gasped) and this time, pretending she was just aiming to slink an arm around his waist. She hugged him close to her with her left arm and tilted her head. She must've thought it looked more cute and innocent, and well-meaning. "So hand over the ferret, and I won't tell anyone about this incident, and you won't get in trouble."

Hermione took the ferret, who promptly scampered away as a second-year began to cry.

Laine started wailing. "BUT--BUT HE'S MY BUNNY-RABBIT HAMSTER!"

Harry started, "Actually, he's a ferret, so--" Hermione clapped a hand over his mouth and shoved him into the wall, then noticed that some sixth years were staring, so she threw him into a hug. What am I, her little toy doll? thought Harry, but he willingly let her toss him around the room. He was, as previously mentioned, much taller, so she couldn't really do much harm--

WHACK.
"Harry, you stupid idiot!" After her fist connected solidly with his nose, Hermione punched Harry in the chest twice, and then went one last time in the stomach. "You're such a stupid...ugh!"
She turned around, her hair whipping in Harry's face (making his eye sting) and then she twirled and noticed he was on the ground.
"OH! HARRY! I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "Oh...you're bleeding!" Hermione gasped and wrung her heads, eyes searching wildly for her wand. "I'm so sorry..."
She waved her wand a few times, and Harry's nose was returned to normal. "Here, let me see..." She pulled him into the nearest room--incidentally, the Room of Requirement--and took off his shirt. "Ohh...ow."

Her hands brushed over a bruise she had given him. "I'm sorry," she whispered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "It's just that I've been so stressed lately with schoolwork and NEWTS and this ferret business and Ron--"

Hermione's lip trembled, her emotions tipping precariously, and then the waterworks started. She burst into tears, Harry pulling her into a comforting hug.

Cocoa the ferret watched from a few feet away, extremely irked. Could Potty put his shirt back on so Cocoa could get Granger to turn him back into a human, please?

I said please, thought Draco. I'm in the Room of Requirement. It's filled with books and guides on Animagus Transformations and Transfiguration, and there's a picture of me, the human hanging up on the wall by the bookshelf. Granger is supposed to be brainy. Just when is she going to take the hint?

Now Potty and his girlfriend were having a cuddling session while the beaver sobbed incessantly and told an interminable tale about a belief that Ron was going to dump her and that their friendship would be spoiled forever. Boo hoo.

They shared some consoling words, hugs, and sniffles--Draco struggled to hold in his vomit--and then, something happened. Something, that, if Draco became human again, he could use to spread some rumors. Some very bad rumors.

Harry took Hermione's chin between his thumb, nudged it up a bit higher with his pointer finger, and kissed her.

On the lips.

And she kissed back.

Hermione sat on the floor of the Room of the Requirement, practically in Harry's lap, shocked. She stared at the shirtless Harry dazedly. His bright green eyes softened, and he looked a little scared and a lot confused. And very surprised with himself.

"I'm so sorry, 'Mione..." he whispered, sounding shaken. "I was just watching you and it slipped away from me and I couldn't help it..."

Hermione felt dizzy. She felt herself trembling from bushy-haired head to currently barefooted toe. She had just kissed Harry, or rather, he had kissed her, or more accurately they kissed each other, and she was dating Ron...Hermione stared at her hand. It was shaking very hard, like the rest of her body.

She felt like she was going to throw up because her head was spinning so fast. She loved Harry...very much...but it hurt so much that he dated so many other girls that by sixth year, she tried her hardest to give up on him. She knew through it all, she found Ron cute but their fights were scary, and that deep down her heart still ached and longed for Harry...but he didn't like her. She was sure of it.

So why did he kiss her?

Hermione looked over at Harry, her big brown eyes blinking, frightened, at him.

"Did you want to?" she breathed. "Kiss me, I mean?"

He drew closer to her, and took her hand. "Yes...I guess I did."

Hermione felt a little faint. She tried to get to her feet, but the Room of Requirement had conveniently had her placed on a bed. She just lay and look up at the ceiling for a few minutes, and watched her surroundings. Harry's eyes were intent on her until out of his peripheral vision he saw a little white tail flicker.

"It's that damned ferret," he muttered, and grabbed it. It yelped and bit him.
(AN: It will be hard to get Harry and Draco to like each other. Really hard.)

"Hermione?" Harry called. "Are you all right?"

"I guess so," she spoke blankly.

"Do you want to stay here...do you want me to stay with you?" he murmured.

"I don't know..." Hermione brightened when she saw Cocoa. "Oh, is that the ferret then? We should get him back to Gin..."

"I suppose...Hermione, I just...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."

"Don't be." She grabbed his hand. "Don't worry about me."

"I can't help it."

"Just don't worry about that kiss." She smiled warmly. "Don't."

Harry tried not to look at her, but it was very hard. She continued on, "I'll take him back myself. You can...you don't have to come."

"No, I w--" Harry started, but then stopped. "Okay."

Hermione's hand flew to his arm. "Come on..."

Now she was teasing. Her voice got a know-it-all tone like that of her young youth. "Honestly, Harry, how do you expect to get anything done at all if you're just moping around all day?"

Harry smiled. "Okay, I'm going."

And he walked off down the hall, not knowing where he was going or how long it would take to mend his broken heart.

When Hermione walked into the common room holding Cocoa with a bright smile on her face, the first thing Ginny noticed (after hugging Cocoa at least) was that the grin was completely fake. The second thing she noticed was that Hermione's lip gloss was smudged, and the third thing that confirmed that something was wrong was the subtle tears that stained Hermione's cheeks.

"Hey, Gin," started Hermione. "I'm feeling a bit tired, think I'm going to--"

"You," Ginny snapped. "Upstairs. Now."

When they were settled on Ginny's four-poster with the door locked, Ginny finally started talking in complete sentences.

"First of all, thank you for finding my ferret and isn't he adorable?" Ginny stroked her pet's silky white fur. "Second. I'm guessing you heard about it."

Hermione looked inquisitively at her friend. "What?"

Ginny looked shocked. "The biggest bloody scandal in all of Hogwarts, that's what!"

Hermione's eyes looked up. "What are you talking about, Gin?"

Ginny felt a drop in her stomach. What besides the scandal could Herm be talking about? Whatever it was, it was only going to make finding out about the scandal worse.

"You tell me first, Herm: What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

So Hermione went on to tell Ginny about everything and the awkward kiss she shared with Harry. Ginny started shaking.

"I'm going to kill my brother," she cried out loud, and Hermione saw a tear fall from Ginny's eye.

"What? Why...Ginny!" Hermione knew she sounded very scared.

Ginny got up and promptly fell back down on the bed. She held her head in her hands.

"Ginny..."

"My git of a brother has been cheating on you and accusing you of cheating on him!" Ginny cried. She got up and stormed out of the dormitory.

Hermione sighed. She knew that something like this had been coming. She turned and looked a picture that was on Ginny's bedside table. There was Hermione between Harry and Ron, with Neville, Ginny and Luna also in the picture. They were all laughing.

The sun streamed through Ginny's curtains and then suddenly seemed to set angrily, the furious night settling over and setting the mood for a dawn of disaster.