After the big flash

Hermione passes Rule 2! Hermione and Thorfinn make plans to meet again. Ron riles Thorfinn up, with unexpected results!

Yaxley and Dolohov jumped off the wall after they finally stopped laughing. Rowle had just gotten off duty. They knew exactly where he would head. They walked into the club and, sure enough, Rowle was slowly but surely making a beeline for the table of girls. They could see all the girls holding up bottles of butterbeer.

"Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Granger passed Rule 1! She's in the Magpies!" Parkinson declared loudly. The girls all cheered. Hermione was smiling happily, still pink cheeked from her big moment.

Pansy looked over Hermione's shoulder and smiled. "Now, we have the perfect opportunity for her to go on to Rule 2!"

Hermione's eyes widened as two arms wrapped around her from behind. "Please tell me you're of age, sweetheart!" Thorfinn whispered into her ear.

"I'm of age enough to get in without a stamp. Just not old enough to buy alcohol yet." She whispered back.

"Dance with me?" he asked, sliding a hand down her arm. Hermione smiled and stood up.

"Oi, Hermione! You can do Rule 2 while you're dancing." Pansy teased her. Thorfinn looked at Pansy.

"So what IS Rule 2?" he asked curiously. Pansy smiled slyly at him.

"Rule 2: at least one PDA: Public Display of Affection!" Thorfinn laughed as he pulled her close to him.

"Ok, sweetheart, you heard the girl!" he said to a blushing Hermione. The girls started chanting at her.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss him! Kiss him!" they watched, holding their breath, as she slid her hands into his hair and stood on her tiptoes, kissing him! They burst out cheering again. Hermione broke away and hid her red face in his shirt. He laughed as he led her to the dance floor. The music had just changed to a soft, slow dance.

The older wizards walked to the bar and sat down to keep an eye on the dance floor. Pansy made her way to the bar to place an order for another round of butterbeer. "If you want to keep an eye on them, you'll have a better view from where we're sitting. He's making sure that we have sight of them at all times." She said to them. They stood and followed her back.

"So the Magpies, huh?" Yaxley asked. Pansy smiled as she nodded. The other girls giggled as they remembered passing Rule 1. "I've always heard from Draco and others that she was an uptight little thing. Never would have figured her to flash someone!"

"I wouldn't have figured her to kiss someone in public but she passed Rule 2 with flying colors." Pansy admitted. She'd have to be sure and tell Draco about it.

Out on the dance floor, Thorfinn had Hermione wrapped tightly in his arms. She had her head tucked into the crook of his neck and her arms wrapped around his waist. "I'll be back to playing Quidditch in two more weeks. Until then I'm a free agent. Care to give a lonely Quidditch player a refresher tour of Hogsmeade tomorrow?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "I'd love to. Would you like to meet at the Three Broomsticks?"

"How about 10:00? Too early?" he smoothed a finger across her chin.

"That's a good time for me. I'm usually one of the first ones into Hogsmeade. I might have company with me, though. Harry and Ron don't like for me to roam around by myself. They'll probably be there with Ginny and Lavender. You might want to brace yourself for a third degree questioning tomorrow." She laughed.

He ducked down and kissed her cheek. "That's no problem. They can ask me anything they want to, as long as they don't try to keep us apart."

She snuggled up to him and sighed happily. Thorfinn kept one arm securely around her shoulders. With the other, he wrapped snugly around her back.

Harry Potter and Ron Weasley walked into the club with their girlfriends. Hearing Ginny and Lavender gasp together, he looked around. They pointed at a couple dancing at the edge of the crowd. It was Hermione and Thorfinn. They narrowed their eyes at seeing her dancing with a former Death Eater!

"That's what was going on! I knew it! Lavender told me something was going on with Hermione and the twins! Something about that club they're in, the Magpies?" Ginny told Harry. He nodded, frowning toward Hermione. By now, Pansy had noticed them.

"Uhoh, here comes trouble. Excuse me, I have to go run interference." She sat her drink down and left. Luna looked up and jumped up to leave as well. They made their way to Potter and grabbed his arms just before he reached Hermione.

"Nope. You come back this way, Potter. You don't mess with her. She's happy. He's interested and you and Weasley are NOT breaking them apart!" Pansy snapped as she and Luna pushed Harry back to Ron, Ginny and Lavender.

"He's a Death Eater! Hermione doesn't need to be mixed up with him!" Harry argued. Pansy stuck her finger in his face, wagging it, temporarily speechless. Luna jumped in on the argument.

"You listen to me, Harry! He didn't WANT to be in the war! Not every Death Eater wanted to be one! She liked him before the war! Before he ever left school! The only reason it took her so long to hook up with him was because she's been underage or fighting until this past year! Now! She's finally getting a shot with him and you will not ruin this for her!" Luna told him firmly. Harry looked at her in surprise. 'LUNA was in on this? Was she also mixed up in that club?'

"Luna? What-are you serious? Tell me you're not mixed up with them, either!" Harry said.

"Yes. I'm in the Magpie club. So are Parvati and Parma! There is nothing at all wrong with it, Harry! Now, please! Give Hermione a chance with him! He won't hurt her! He likes her, too!" Luna tried to get Harry to be open minded about the situation.

Harry sighed. He wasn't happy about Hermione's choice of potential boyfriend but he'd do as requested. He'd sit back and watch it unfold. But woe be to Rowle if he broke Hermione's heart! He'd have to deal with Harry fucking Potter, the Boy who lived Twice!

Thorfinn had watched the whole thing play out over Hermione's shoulder. She had no clue her friends were anywhere on the place. He wasn't about to alert her to it, either. She might try to keep a distance between them if she knew! He rubbed her shoulders and whispered to her.

"If I were to send tickets for your whole club, would you come to one of my games? You don't have to watch. You can bring a book, if you'd like. But I'd like to see you before the game. Maybe afterwards, if it doesn't run on too long, we could go to dinner?" he cupped her cheek, looking into her eyes.

Hermione smiled. "I'm not too much into Quidditch: Pansy or Draco might have mentioned that. But I'll be happy to come to a game. I might even try to watch a bit of it. Dinner would be great!"

Thorfinn snuggled his face into her hair. "It's a date then, sweetheart. Until I go back to playing, I'll be here in Hogsmeade. As soon as I'm back in active play, I'll send you an owl." He tightened his arms around her and met Potter's eyes challengingly from across the floor.

"We're not letting her get involved with him, are we?" Ron asked him incredulously after Pansy and Luna walked away.

"I don't want to but they're right. It's Hermione's own decision. She DID like him in school! He was the only reason she'd go to any Quidditch game Gryffindor wasn't playing in. She'd take a book and wouldn't even look at it, remember? She'd be too busy watching him fly or staring across the field at him." Harry crossed his arms as he returned Thorfinn's challenging look.

He kept a close watch over her and the Quidditch player the rest of the evening. As it wound down to closing time, the Magpies watched as Hermione, who had danced the rest of the evening away with Thorfinn, finally became aware that Harry and Ron were there.

As Thorfinn had suspected, she immediately pushed back from him. Harry and Ron approached them. Harry smiled politely at him as he directed his words at Hermione. "Hey, 'Mione. We didn't know you'd be here. You could have walked down with us. We're getting ready to go back. May I have a word with you?"

Hermione reluctantly left Thorfinn with Ron, Ginny and Lavender while she spoke to Harry. "Harry. Hi, I, uh, I came down with Luna and some others. We, um, had to do something earlier. I was going to walk back with them."

Yaxley nudged Pansy. "Reckon what that's about? He tries to keep her and Finn apart, the boy will go off the deep end. Now that he's aware of her, he won't be willing to lose her!"

"Don't worry about Hermione. We'll keep her with Thorfinn, even if we have to kidnap her into the Slytherin common room. We won't let Harry and Ron scare her off of him." Pansy assured him. He could see the two gingers talking to Thorfinn. It didn't look like it was going too well. The male ginger was squaring off with him.

"Antonin, we got a problem!" he pointed. Dolohov jumped up and rushed off. He got there just in time to throw an arm in front of Thorfinn. The Quidditch player had just taken a swing at Ron!

"No! Thor, no! No fighting! You wanna be benched even longer?! No. Fighting! And you! Get your bloody fucking arse away from him! Now, you bloody little ginger!" Antonin snapped at Ron. Ron backed away quickly. He was pale with fear, evidently not having expected Thorfinn to actually try and hit him!

"Ron! What did you do?" Hermione cried as she rushed over. "What did you say to him?"

"I just told him Death Eaters need to stick to their own kind! You don't need him, Hermione! All of the guys at school and you go and hook up with a Death Eater!" he yelled. Hermione narrowed her eyes, growled angrily and punched him in the nose!