Disclaimer: The plot is mine. Only the plot and nothing but the plot. So help me God.

WHITE LILIES

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE GAME BEGINS

"Bloody hell, mate, what happened to you?" I heard Ron asked Harry when he arrived at the Great Hall that morning.

I glanced over to Harry who was sitting in front of me. I could see what Ron was talking about. It was very clear actually and I couldn't believe that I was the one who gave him that.

"It was a long story, Ron," Harry replied and he caught my eye. I quickly returned my attention to my plate, blushing.

Flashback

When I saw the towel beside me and realized that he must be wearing nothing, I screamed right at Harry's ear. I immediately pushed him off of me and buried my face in my hands and screamed again.

"Hey – I – Hermione, please calm down!" he shouted over my screaming. "Please stop screaming! They might thing I'm doing things to you and come up here!"

"Then let them come!" I yelled, my hands still on my face. "Let them see you naked and standing in front of me!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Come on! Look at me!"

He grabbed my arm and wrenched it away from my face. I had a second glimpse of his face before I punched him right at the eye. He staggered backward, clutching his left eye.

"Ow," he moaned, rolling on the floor. Then something blue caught my eye. I slowly looked down and realized that I was wrong. He was not totally naked. He was wearing his boxers underneath that towel.

"Oh my – Harry!" I cried as I rushed towards him. "I'm so sorry!"

"Why did you hit me?" he asked.

"I thought you weren't wearing anything so I – I punched you!"

"Do you really thing I'd do that to you?"

"But you said you'd show me a -- a male's anatomy in close up! I thought you were serious about that!"

"I was only joking," he said, standing up. He walked over to the mirror and removed his hand from his eye. He had a black eye.

"Oh dear," I said under my breath as I stared at his eye. "That's terrible."

"And you gave that to me," he said. "Hermione Granger gave me a black eye."

"I'm sorry."

"Now I know how Malfoy felt."

"That's a terrible black eye, Harry."

I lifted my gaze and saw Ginny sitting beside Harry, holding his glasses and examining his eye. When did she get here?

"Yeah, I know," said Harry, quite enjoying himself. "I – er – fell off my bed and – uh – something hit my eye."

"Aw, poor you," Ginny said sweetly. It made my blood boil. "Do you want me to fix it?"

"You can?" Harry asked her, smiling.

"I sure can," Ginny said in a seductive voice. She leaned closer to Harry, her face mere inches from his. I let go of my spoon and fork and it landed on my plate with a loud clatter. Ginny stopped moving closer and glared at me.

"Oops," I said sarcastically. "Sorry about that."

"Oh – uhm – it was nothing," Harry replied, slowly pushing Ginny away.

"Come on, Harry." I stood up, grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

"Where are we going?"

"To the library. We have our N.E.W.T.s –"

"Don't you want me to fix your eye first, Harry?" Ginny said in a louder voice. She grabbed Harry's other arm and pulled him back down.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, sure. Hermione, let Ginny fix –"

"I could fix it for you." I pulled my wand from my pocket. "I just know the right spell –"

"No, let me do it, Harry," Ginny told him and she also pulled her wand from her pocket. Two wands were now pointing at Harry's left eye. "It's like this –"

We muttered the spell at the same time and our wands glowed. For a moment we thought that Harry's face was back to normal but we wrong. The black eye was removed, alright but that part of Harry's face was now chalk white.

We all stared at his face. Then Ron started on laughing like a maniac and Ginny turned to me.

"Look at what you did!" she shouted at me. "You made everything worse!"

"Me?" I exclaimed. "It's you who did something wrong!"

"Can anyone please tell me what wrong with my face?" Harry asked the two of us. This made Ron laugh even harder.

"Well, Miss Hermione Granger here made your face white!" Ginny yelled, not looking at Harry. Everyone was looking over our table now.

"You're blaming me?" I asked her, trying to minimize my voice but I was unsuccessful.

"Yes, I am!"

"Ladies, please –" Harry said, trying to stop us. But like me, he was unsuccessful.

"You're spell did that to him!" I retorted.

"Oh, yeah? It was your entire fault, Miss Perfect-Head-Girl! If you didn't keep on pushing yourself between Harry and I his face would be back to normal now!"

"You're the one who's butting in!" I snapped back but my voice was drowned by the fluttering of wings.

Owls were filling the Great Hall. Two owls came towards me, one with the Prophet, the other with a bouquet of lilies. I set them aside and was about to turn back to Harry and Ginny when another owl with another bouquet of lilies landed on my shoulder.

"What the –?"

I spun around and saw another dozen of owls – or perhaps, more of them – flying towards me. Every single bird was carrying the same thing – white lilies.

"Bloody Hell," Ron said when twenty owls landed on the Gryffindor table, all waiting for me to remove there package.

"What are these?" I said, stunned. Twenty bouquets of lilies? Why?

The owl that was on my shoulder held up it's leg. I noticed that aside from the lilies, there was a piece of parchment tied to its leg. I took it and read:

I wasn't able to give you anything yesterday.

You must be mad at me. I'm sorry.

All of these lilies are for you. May you forgive me.

I read the note twice. All of these because he wasn't able to give me a single bunch? What a way to make it up with me.

I looked at Ron who was staring at all the owls and to Harry – or rather, to where Harry was for he was no longer there. And so was Ginny.

I immediately scanned the Great Hall and I saw them running – Ginny was pulling Harry – towards the Oak doors and out of the castle.

The Game begins, then, I said to myself and ran after them.