Chapter Eighteen

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Knew It All Along

Harry and Hermione walked the corridor in silence. Hermione thought about their new status. This boyfriend/girlfriend business might not be so bad after all. If their behaviour didn't alter, their friendship would remain intact. And the pretense, a shared secret, might even bring them closer together.

"You know, Harry, this might even be fun," Hermione said.

Harry wasn't listening. He was surveying the hall. "Nevile's waiting for you again," he told her.

Nevile waved and smiled.

"Do something, Harry," Hermione instructed as she and Harry approached the door.

He grabbed her hand. "Smile at me," he said.

She yanked her hand from his. Professor Snape would have a fit if she saw them holding hands. Besides, his hand was cold. "I don't feel like smiling."

Hermione was face to face with Nevile. "Oh, hi, Nevile," she said. "I – we didn't see you standing there."

Nevile's grin widened. "Hi, Hermione," he said.

Harry slid in between them. "So I'll see you after class, Hermione?"

Hermione didn't know what he was talking about. She had made plans with Ginny for after class. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but he rolled his eyes toward Nevile. "Oh!" she said, remembering she had a role to play. "After school." She smiled. "Right."

Harry edged away. "I can't wait," he said.

Hermione thought that sounded sappy, but she went along with it. "Me, neither."

Grinning and waving his fingers at her, Harry back stepped toward a small group of the boys.

He didn't even look like himself! It was that silly smirk. Hermione wanted to dash after him and wipe it off his face. Instead, she smiled and waved to him. When her face started to hurt, she turned to Nevile.

His own smile had slid off centre. He seemed to be frozen.

They stood there silently, facing one another. Nevile's face changed colour slowly. Judging by the creeping heat she felt, Hermione knew hers was turning red, too.

She felt she should say something to Nevile – tell him that she and Harry were a couple, but she couldn't find the words.

Finally, Nevile said, "You and Harry?"

Averting her eyes, she nodded.

The smile slid off his face entirely. His shoulders drooped. "Oh," he said.

He looked so dejected. Hermione wanted to say something funny to cheer him up, but she couldn't think of a single word, funny or otherwise.

Parvati came galloping to the rescue. "Hi, Nevile," she said, "is that a new jacket?"

Nevile glanced down at his dark green windbreaker. He looked at Parvati, at Hermione, the jacket. Then, he trotted off.

"He is so cute," Parvati said.

"Maybe you could be his girlfriend," Hermione suggested. "Maybe we could all do something together sometime, you and Nevile and… Harry and me." It was all she could do to keep from blurting out, "We're pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend."

Parvati gaped at her. "You and Harry!"

Hermione shrugged as if to say, "You know how it is."

Parvati danced in a circle. "I knew it! I knew it all along!"

o-o-o-o-o

Parvati made it her business to tell everyone about Harry and Hermione. Hermione was relieved that she didn't have to do it herself. Telling Nevile and Parvati had been much more difficult than she had anticipated. Lying was against her nature, and even though she told herself it was only a role-playing game, she was uncomfortable with it. She worried that someone would detect the ruse, but no one did. They seemed to think the pairing of her and Harry was inevitable.

Pansy summarized the class' attitude when she said, "So what else is new?"

Hermione had mixed emotions about the reaction. She was relieved that her classmates accepted the sham without question, making explanations unnecessary. At the same time, she resented their assuming she was so predictable that they knew what she was going to do before she herself knew.

Harry didn't seem to be having similar problems. He accepted his role wholeheartedly. A devoted look on his face, he smiled at Hermione all morning. When she entered the room, he smiled. When she left it, he smiled. When she stood to recite, he smiled. When she sat down, he smiled. He smiled when she gave a correct answer and when she was wrong.

It made her so self conscious that her ears burned. She kept covering them but, still, she could feel them poking, flame red, through her fine brown hair. She scowled at Harry a couple of times and mouthed, "Stop it!" but he kept right on smiling.

By lunchtime, she was ready to explode, and when Harry suggested they eat together, she stormed off without responding.

"I can't wait til it snows," she said as she joined the other girls at the table.

Everyone focused on her, waiting for an explanation.

Past experience had taught her that boys could never resist packing snow into smooth icy balls and pitching them at the girls. Hermione had always dreaded winter for that reason. Now, she'd prefer a direct his with a snowball to the boy's sappy smiles. "The boys will start throwing snowballs at us," she explained, "and things will be back to normal."

The girls exchanged puzzled glances. Then Parvati said, "How do you hold hands in the winter?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to look puzzled.

"I was wondering that too," Padma said. "This morning it was so cold. I was wishing I had my mittens and - "

"You shouldn't hold hands when you're wearing mittens," Lavender said.

"Why not?" asked Padma.

"Because it wouldn't be like holding hands then; it'd be like holding… mittens."

"What about gloves?" asked Parvati.

Lavender rolled her eyes. "It's the same thing, Parvati."

"But if it's cold, and you take off your mittens or gloves or whatever," Padma said, "your hands could… freeze!"

Parvati's eyes went dreamy. "His hand and your hand – frozen together. That is so romantic!"

Hermione began to get up. This conversation was ridiculous!

"Where are you going after class?" Lavender asked her.

"I'm going to study with Ginny in the library," Hermione said.

"Does Harry want to do that?" Padma wanted to know.

"What's Harry got to do with it?" asked Hermione.

The girls looked appalled. They all started talking at one.

"You mean he's not going with you?"

"Did you ask him if it was okay?"

"I don't have to ask his permission," Hermione snapped.

"Ernie would be really jealous if I went somewhere without asking him first," Lavender said.

"Ernie Macmillan?" Hermione repeated. "I thought Dean was your boyfriend."

"That didn't work out," Pansy put in, leaning across from the Slytherin table.

"Everybody thought he was my little brother," Lavender added.

"So who is Dean's girlfriend then?"

"Hannah Abbott, of course."

"Where have you been, Hermione?" Padma asked.

As she sat there listening to the girls talk, Hermione asked herself the same question. Apparently, without her having been aware of it, things in the third year world had changed once again. This boy-girl business had begun as a kind of game. Everybody had flirted with everybody. The couples that had formed were temporary and changed rapidly. Now, the pairing off was becoming more serious and permanent.

Hermione wasn't sure how she and Harry fit into all this. If pretending to be a couple meant they couldn't have friends, too, then she didn't want any part of it. On the other hand, who would she be friends with if everyone else was involved in an exclusive relationship?