A/N: Just a little something I wrote when prompted by a friend. As always, let me know what you think.

And before anyone asks, yes, I will still be updating 'The Sweetest Thing' this is a stand alone story and there needs to be no mention of TST within any reviews for this story. Okay? Tis its own story.

That said, enjoy.

In Which Harry is Dense. (…but gets snogged anyway.)

Harry sat in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, flicking idly through his Potion's text, stopping every now and then to decipher the Prince's untidy scrawl. He wasn't finding much of interest as he turned the thick yellowing pages.

His mind wasn't exactly on Potion's though. It was more on the girl that was sitting exactly behind him and two seats to the right.

Ginny was sitting with her friends, laughing out loud every now and then at something Colin Creevey was telling her. Her last outburst of "Colin! You didn't!" had sent shivers up his spine and left him with an odd feeling in his stomach.

He moodily flicked the pages faster and faster, not reading anything on them anymore, just wanting to appear as though he was doing something other than listening to every word of Ginny's. In an overstuffed armchair on his right sat Hermione reading a ridiculously large novel, its title obscured from his view. She tutted and he looked up at her and frowned.

"What?"

"Must you sit there and make so much noise whilst you read?" she asked, hefting her book higher and turning a page silently to prove her point.

Harry scowled and looked back down at his book. Why did Ginny have to sit there and giggle like that? It really was quite distracting. Only to him he supposed. But still, did she have to do it that close to him? He could feel Hermione watching him and lifted his textbook level with his eyes so he could avoid her.

He found himself looking at a page entitled "Ensnaring the Senses." He briefly mentioned Snape saying something along those lines in his first ever Potions lesson.

Snape. He didn't really want to think about Snape right now, not when a witch as…pretty as Ginny was sitting mere metres away from him. Snape wasn't worthy enough to breath the same air as Ginny…

He could almost picture Ginny rolling around from laughter if she knew he'd thought such a thing. Harry shook his head, what was he thinking? Further more, the last thing he needed was for Ron to become suddenly skilled in the art of Occlumency. (It could happen.) He did not need to know what Harry thought of his sister. Even if they were nice thoughts. Very nice thoughts.

He looked down the contents page of this section of his text book and his eyes lighted upon "Potions to get you that extra bit of attention." He raised an eyebrow and flicked to page 135 where he read the blurb of the potion which described in detail how to create a Potion that would gain you the utmost attention from whomever you desired. All you had to do was slip it into a beverage of your choice, and it would take effect immediately.

Thinking this was too good to be true; Harry read along further to the list of ingredients and discovered that he had all of the equipment needed in his trunk upstairs. He closed his eyes for a moment and let his mind wonder about all of the possibilities the Potion could reward him with. Surely a bit of snogging would be involved? That wasn't too much to ask was it? A little snogging might put him in better spirits. And if it was snogging with Ginny, so much the better.

Of course, he didn't want to just snog with Ginny, he cared about her too, at least he figured that's what it meant to be always thinking about her and wanting to pulverize anyone who talked to her. Closing his Potions text he gathered his school bag and slipped the book inside and told Hermione he was going to his dorm and upon receiving a dismissive hand wave from her, walked towards the boy's dorms but stopped dead in his tracks when Ginny called out to him.

"Hey Harry! Didn't see you there. Want a game of Exploding Snap with me later?" she asked, grinning at him as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He nodded dumbly, wishing he would stop bobbing his head up and down stupidly.

"S-sure," he said, cursing his voice for breaking as he answered her.

"Great, until then, then," she said and turned back to her friends.

Harry climbed the stairs, muttering under his breath about his lack of suaveness. "Real smooth, Potter. Probably fancies boys who can actually form sentences," he grumbled as he entered his dorm, throwing his bag down into his trunk at the end of his bed.

He began rummaging through his trunk for the ingredients of the Potion half-heartedly before he realized he wasn't alone in the room. "Hey, Harry," Ron called from his four–poster.

"…Hey," he said hesitantly. Looking around the room and feeling as though Ron could hear every thought in his head. She's his sister. "What're you doing up here? Did you row with Hermione again?"

"Might have, yeah," he said, turning a page of Quidditch Through the Ages, it looking more and more battered each time Harry saw it.

"Right."

"What're you doing? We got a Potions assignment I don't know about?" he asked, sitting up on his bed and peering down into Harry's trunk from where he sat.

"No… I…er…just wanted to check out a Potion of the Prince's," he said, inventing on the spot.

"Oh cool, which one?"

"Oh just one to make you smarter for twenty-four hours or so," he said, cringing at his inability to come up with a good lie. Ron, apparently, was convinced anyway.

"Lend me some when you're done, yeah? I keep putting my foot in it with Hermione. Speaking of which, best go see if I can't make things worse," he said, throwing down the Quidditch book and leaving Harry alone in their dorm.

He brewed the Potion in their adjoining bathroom, after managing to light his Cauldron over one of the toilet bowls. He grinned, remembering it was Hermione he'd learnt the heating spell from. (After failing to learn it from Professor Flitwick.) It was a simple enough Potion to make. The problem was going to be getting Ginny to drink some of it.

Suddenly it came to him. He'd often recalled her drinking warm milk on cold nights during Christmas at the Burrow the last couple of years that he'd spent there. He could always make them some hot chocolate to drink, the colour of the Potion was a murky brown anyway, and it would be less noticeable in hot chocolate than in milk.

So that settled things. He'd brew them up some hot drinks over their game of Exploding Snap. The game that she'd asked him to play with her, as though there had been no one else in the room…

He shook his head again. She was invading his thoughts so much that he was resorting to desperate measures. He sat down and thought about what he was going to do. Slip a Potion into her drink to gain her full attention…the whole situation screamed unethical. However, it was harmless. He just wanted a little of her undivided attention.

Later that night, Harry sat back on the same couch, waiting for Ginny to join him with her pack of Exploding Snap cards, as his had been reduced to ash during his last match with Ron. Hermione was sitting cross-legged on the seat opposite him, dangling a ball of wool for Crookshanks and smiling softly to herself.

"You and Ron made up then?" he asked her as she shook her head, much like he'd been doing lately, as though to clear it.

"We did, yes." She said, though sounding strict, looked quite pleased with herself. It didn't last long though. She frowned at the drinks Harry had laid out on a tray on the coffee table between them. "What's that about then?" she asked him.

"I just thought Ginny might like a drink is all. Its cold and I thought hot chocolate might go down nicely," he said, silently begging her not to ask any more questions.

"Right. I'm going to go to the Library for a while; I need to borrow a book on Ancient Runes. I won't be back until late, Ron's coming with me, something about the new Quidditch magazine being in. We'll see you later Harry," she said, offering him a wave and heading out the Portrait Hole, Ron following after her.

Harry couldn't believe his luck. Ron wouldn't be around to witness any extra curricular activities that might take place tonight. He was relatively free to do what he liked. He grinned.

"What's got you grinning like that?" Ginny asked, appearing out of nowhere and setting the cards up in a pile on the floor and dealing out a hand to Harry and one to herself.

He grinned wider. "Nothing at all."

"So then I said 'Listen here, bucko, there's no way you're' – Harry, are you listening to me?" Ginny asked some twenty minutes later, peering at Harry and waving a hand in front of his face.

"What? Oh yeah, sure," he said, jumping slightly and pushing his glasses up on his nose and peering back at her.

"Liar," she said, though she didn't seem too bothered by his apparent lack of interest in her.

"Want some hot chocolate, Gin?" he asked, fighting down the blush that was trying to appear on his face at what he was doing. Could he possibly be more obvious?

She peered at it and shrugged. "Sure, thanks," she accepted the steaming mug of liquid from Harry and wrapped her hands around the mug, inhaling gently. "Mmm it smells lovely, did you put cinnamon in it?" she asked, blowing across the top of it.

"Yeah, I reckon I did, sure,"

"Are you all right? You seem distracted lately," Harry choked on a mouthful of his drink.

"Distracted? By what?" he could have kicked himself.

"I don't know. Anything you want to talk about?"

Why did she have to be so innocent and looking at him like that? Harry shook his head 'No'. "I'm fine."

"Harry, I've been wanting to talk to you about something. See it's a little embarrassing and I'm not sure how to…to…" her sentence faded off into nothingness and Harry was afraid to lift his head to meet her eyes but was pleasantly surprised when he did.

She kissed him. Thirty seconds later he changed his mind, no, she was snogging him. So this was what snogging was like. His eyes widened behind his glasses before they slid closed; enjoying the slight tickle on his cheek from what he guessed must have been Ginny's hair. It was a lot softer than he'd imagined.

He couldn't help but be amazed at the strength of his Potion. Had he been alone, he'd have pumped his fist into the air with glee, pronouncing his brilliance at getting the Potion to work so effectively. The Prince never failed. Instead, he marveled at Ginny's snogging technique. Not that he knew if she were any good or not, if her technique was as wonderful as he thought it was. His only other experience being Cho, he didn't know what to think...he shouldn't be thinking about Cho right now anyway.

He frowned as Ginny's mouth left his and was about to protest when he felt her breath on his cheek…was Ginny…did she just…she did! She bit his earlobe! Well, he certainly wasn't complaining. It was that moment that Harry decided he liked snogging Ginny very much. He felt his glasses get knocked aside as Ginny tugged at his hair. It was all too good to be true. No Potion could elicit such a response to…to him, of all people. It must be a prank. Ohhh she just did it again. Harry froze. He was sure that god awful sighing sound had not been Ginny. It wasn't, for she giggled herself a moment later. He opened his eyes as she pulled away from him.

"That's what I wanted to say. Thanks for understanding, Harry," she said, grinning at him. He nodded dumbly again.

"Sure, sure. That…um. Anytime," he said, for lack of anything witty to say. Ginny didn't seem to mind though. She kissed him again on the cheek and hopped up and said something about it being late and that she'd see him in the morning.

His head feels as though it's full of a misty fog as she stands up and looks down at him sitting on the floor surrounded by Snap cards that had become dislodged from their tower during their…activities.

"Ooh! I've let my chocolate go cold! I didn't even get to have any. Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sure it was lovely though. We'll have to do this another night, yes?" she asked, her eyes sparkling so much that Harry wonders how he could possibly say no.

"'Course. You know where to find me," he said, wondering if there were classes on how to learn to formulate proper sentences around the girl you fancied.

Ginny waved at him, and beaming, left him sitting, still surrounded by the snap cards. He picked one up, not thinking and it exploded in his face. Blinking, he hardly noticed.

"Ooh! I've let my chocolate go cold. I didn't even get to have any."

What?

He blinked, and looked into the mug and sure enough it was as full to the brim as he'd filled it. But that didn't make sense. She'd snogged him but hadn't had any Potion. Luckily, at that moment, or unluckily, depending on how you want to look at it, Ron and Hermione entered the Portrait Hole, talking quietly to themselves.

"I see the game of Snap went well," Hermione said, laughing at the ash covered Harry.

"You could say that, yeah," he said, laughing, though it was laughter of disbelief.

Ron yawned. "I'm heading to bed. See you in a bit, Harry. 'Night Hermione,"

They bid Ron goodnight in return and Harry asked Hermione to stay as he had a technical question for her.

"Go ahead, I'm all ears," she said, perching herself on the arm of one of the couches and looking down at Harry.

"Right. So…er…if a Potion that's supposed to be ingested to work, works without being ingested…what does that mean?"

Hermione stared at him. "You'll have to be more specific than that. For instance, what kind of Potion are we talking about and did the effects work as well as they would have had they been ingested?" she asked primly.

"I'd say they worked even better," Harry said, thinking of the feeling of Ginny's lips on his own. "How is that possible though?"

"What kind of Potion are we talking about Harry?"

"I might have found something in our Potions text about getting a little bit of extra attention from a person of your choice and I might have make said Potion and I might have put some in Ginny's hot chocolate but –"

"You what? Harry, you can't go around putting things in people's drinks. How many times have I told you that? Oh what if you made it wrong?"

"She didn't drink it Hermione! Beside, it had notes from the Prince beside it, I'd have gotten it right," Harry said, feeling slightly offended by her lack of faith in him.

"The Prince," she spat the word as though it were poison to her. "You shouldn't rely on the 'Prince' to help you to brew Potions. What happened anyway? You said you got the effects of the Potion but that she didn't have any,"

"She…er…well we might have…snogged a bit."

"You…really?" Hermione asked, her voice rising to a rather high pitch, one that Harry wasn't used to and he winced. "She snogged you, right?"

"Yes, but how? I mean, she didn't have any of the Potion, why would she--?"

"I rather expect she got fed up with you and took matters into her own hands."

"But Ginny doesn't…I still don't get why."

"Oh Harry, don't be dense. Ginny would have snogged you had you only asked her. Though, I told her not to give in to you immediately if you did ask her, it's not very respectable for girls to snog boys merely because they ask them. You needn't have devised a plan to get her to snog you. A plan that wasn't well thought out, I might add. Ginny's not overly fond of hot chocolate,"

Harry gaped. "So you mean…"

"She fancies you? Yes. I'd think even you would have picked up on that by now."

Harry grinned. He fell asleep that night grateful for several things all at once. Hermione's knowledge of all things female, Ron's inability to read his thoughts, and Ginny for simply being Ginny.

It only took him until the next morning to recruit Ginny again to pursue in extra curricular activities with him again that night, Ron be damned.

"Fancy a game of Snap Ginny?"

"Don't mind if I do."

Fin.