The Kiss Your Best Friend Challenge
"Look, you don't have to do it," Ginny Weasley was telling Hermione, "but it's fun and I challenge you."
The "Kiss Your Best Friend" challenge was becoming very popular and it was all anyone could talk about.
The premise for the social challenge was that boy-girl best friends take a picture of themselves kissing their best friend out of the blue just to see if they will kiss back. The Daily Prophet had picked up on the social challenge from the muggle world and had printed a call for photos to print on the social pages.
The challenge would give readers a chance to vote for the sweetest, the worst, and the funniest. The prize was a pair of tickets to the quidditch World Cup in Spain next month.
Harry Potter, Hermione's best friend, had not gotten tickets because he was going to be gone on a mission as an auror. The mission concluded early but now it was too late to get tickets. Well, unless Harry pulled the "I'm the Boy-Who-Lived card." Which he wouldn't.
That left Hermione in an awkward position of having her other best friend, Ginny, challenging her to participate in the Kiss Your Best Friend challenge as she was sure that Hermione and Harry would win the overall prize.
"How can you even suggest this?" Hermione groaned from underneath her pillow. "You have only been broken up with him for 4 months!"
The pillow was snatched out of her hands so that she was forced to look up at the red head hovering over her.
"Yes, we've been broken up for 4 whole months, Hermione. That's long enough to start dating someone new. I have anyway."
"What?!" Hermione bolted upright in her bed. "Who?"
Shrugging, Ginny sat down across from her on the bed. "We split up because we just weren't right for each other. It was amicable. Neither one of us was torn up over it so I don't think I need to suffer a mourning period. Blaise and I ran into each other after a match and he asked me out so I went."
This was news to Hermione.
"Harry did say the breakup was mutual but he's not even seemed interested in dating again."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her. "Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. My point was that I am certain that any entry for the challenge containing Harry Potter will win. Don't you want to be able to take him to the World Cup?"
Shaking her head vehemently, Hermione said, "No, I was rather going to give both tickets to him and let him choose who to take. You know I'm no one's idea of a good time at a quidditch match. Besides, that's sort of like forcing him to use the Boy-Who-Lived card anyway."
Her redheaded friend stood up from the bed and sauntered over to Hermione's wardrobe where she riffled through the clothing options.
"Say you set it up and did the challenge. Worst case scenario: he pushes you away violently and you topple over before you both laugh hysterically. You win the funniest and get a couple tickets to a league game. Best case scenario: he kisses you back so fast that they have to edit the photo because the tail end of it's not family friendly enough for the paper."
"It's still sneaky and underhanded to take a photo of it all and send it to the paper. I would never want this done to me," Hermione pointed out as Ginny tossed a few dresses into her bed.
"Then how about you do the challenge and after, you'll have to explain it to him anyway so you watch the photo together and if he likes the idea, you submit. If he doesn't, you keep it for fun."
Chewing her lip, Hermione's thoughts were conflicted. On one hand, she'd liked Harry for about 10 years now. He had always been her best friend and she'd always found him sweet and cute but only as they grew closer during the year on the run together did she really become attracted to him.
Nothing came of it because he was in the middle of a relationship with Ginny that was "off" but would be on again as soon as their mission was completed.
Ron had been the other issue. While Hermione had been holding back her feelings for Harry, Ron had been developing feelings for her. He'd done the Kiss-Your-Best-Friend challenge before it was popular when he sprang a kiss on her during the Battle of Hogwarts. She'd been so surprised that she'd kissed back and then had to let Ron down gently. He'd not taken her rejection well and their friendship suffered.
"I don't want to ruin my friendship with him," she confessed.
Dropping a royal blue sequin dress, Ginny strode back over to Hermione and sat down next to her. Hermione hugged a pillow to her chest.
"I know you and Harry are best friends. I never cared that you two are closer than most husbands and wives. I would have been fine with having you like a bonus wife to my relationship had I not felt like he loved you more than he loved me," Ginny told her softly, tucking a strand of Hermione's curly hair behind her ear.
"I don't really know if Harry is aware of his feelings for you or what they are but I believe you both care about each other deeply and deserve a chance. That's what this is, Hermione. A chance. You can kiss him and he gets a split second to react naturally. If he kisses you back and goes with it, you'll both know. If he hesitates or recoils, you can laugh it off and tell him about the challenge and show him the other photos of people reacting the same way."
Hermione was still worried about it and Ginny threw her hands up in the air.
"Look, if one of your friends kissed you for fun, just to see your reaction, how would you react?"
She shrugged. The last thing she expected when Ginny sat down in front of her on her bed was for the younger witch to grab her chin with two fingers and lean in to kiss her. Hermione was so shocked that she froze. When Ginny pulled away grinning, Hermione swatted her.
"Why?"
"Now you know how it feels AND I have a submission for the paper!"
Hermione noticed the camera nearby and lunged for the picture that popped out. Ginny had faster reflexes though.
Long after Ginny left that afternoon, with a dress in hand for her date that night, Hermione considered the possibilities.
Ginny was right. This was a good opportunity to test the waters without getting caught. She could easily kiss him and laugh it off for the sake of their friendship if he rebuked her. Having a Harry she couldn't date was better than none.
On the other hand, what if it upset him and he acted weird on her for it?
Friday nights were Harry and Hermione's night to spend time together. After his break up with Ginny, Harry had decreed Friday nights were roommate-bonding time. Every Friday night since then she and Harry made it a habit to pick up muggle take out, a film or a game and they sat around the drawing room in their comfy pajamas and did whatever they felt like it.
Tonight was different in the sense that Hermione was planning to make a move on him and she knew it but he did not. Hermione took a shower and paid more attention to her hygiene and appearance than she usually did.
The challenge was to kiss him so she brushed her teeth well past the standards her dentist parents had taught her, dried and smoothed her curls into order. Then she put on a pair of Harry's boxer briefs that he had tried and didn't like and therefore gave to her for sleepwear. She topped it with a large quidditch jersey with "Potter 7" on the back.
I'm order to not seem like she was trying too hard, she found her tall, fuzzy socks with snitches on them and hiked them halfway up to her knees. She looked as casual as she usually did.
Harry was bringing home the pizza and beer and she had already picked out the movie. Since she was going to put a move on him, she chose a horror movie that was very ridiculous and fake looking. It would make her jump but would leave no lasting impressions on either of them leading to nightmares. Neither of them needed more things to haunt their dreams.
"Mi?" Harry shouted from the entryway.
"Let's camp out in the drawing room," Hermione shouted down to him.
When he came through the French doors that led to the drawing room, Hermione had everything set up. She had pushed all the furniture out of the way except the love seat, the coffee table, and the large television that Harry had purchased. With some spells, Hermione had been able to protect it and make it work in a magical household.
'Pizza delivery," Harry grinned cheerfully.
"You're the best," Hermione thanked him, accepting a beer as Harry plopped down on one end of the couch. He ran a hand through his hair and opened a second bottle for himself.
"You should change," Hermione recommended. "You're out of uniform."
"I'm starving," Harry informed her, taking a slice from the box. "I'll change as soon as I eat. Can we start the movie after?"
"Okay," she agreed, sitting down next to Harry and tucking her feet up under his thigh the way she usually did.
They ate their pizza and drank their beer. She watched Harry scrolling through his phone, lazily and wondered whether her mode of attack would yield different responses. If, say right now, she were to lean over and kiss him now, would he shove her off the couch? Would he follow her lips as she backed away from him after completing the challenge?
"You would think that Ron would have the guts to tell Lavender to stop posting nasty pictures on Facebook of the two of them snogging all over the place," Harry commented while flashing his phone at her.
On screen was a recent picture of Ron sticking his tongue down the shallow blonde girl's throat while she snapped a selfie of it over his shoulder. Leaning closer to Harry, she read the post caption.
"What does "Won-won wuvs me" even mean?" Hermione choked on her pizza, trying not to look like a complete cow as she ate.
Looking green, Harry scrolled past the picture quickly. "It means she took over Ron. I know we always said 'leave no man behind' but fuck if I'm going back to save him. I can't even look at that without wanting to ralph."
She laughed and swallowed a sip of her beer to soothe her throat. "I guess it's too late to save him. The Lavender's of the world have sunk their teeth into him."
"He's been turned," Harry agreed.
"Are we going with a zombie metaphor or a werewolf metaphor?"
Chucking, Harry reached in front of her to grab another slice of pizza. His arm brushed her breast ever so slightly. "Whatever Lavender is, zombie or werewolf, I want no part of it. The last time I let Ron talk me into double dating with him, he set me up with Lavender's friend who was visiting from out of town. The girls giggled together the whole night and made catty comments about the waitress's shoes and only spoke to us to tell us to get them a fresh drink or to make us walk them to the bathroom."
"That's awful," Hermione agreed. "The last date I had, Luna set me up with some guy that works at the Ministry. He talked of nothing but his days playing quidditch and was genuinely shocked when, at the end of the date, I didn't want to come up to his flat and refused to give him my number. He tried to kiss me and I kept backing away until he backed me into the railing outside his flat. He slobbered on me before I could get away and I had to literally wipe my face on the hem of my dress before I was covered in saliva."
Her best friend threw his head back and laughed. She'd told Harry about her date when it had happened but she hadn't shared any details other than that it went badly.
"That's terrible, love," Harry said, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders while he ate.
Hermione grabbed herself a third slice and Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "Hungry?"
"Don't judge me," she muttered.
"I would never. I like that you actually eat. It's a shame girls think that they need to eat a tiny salad on a date to make the bloke think they're pretty. Since when does having the appetite of a rabbit equate to a turn on?"
She shook her head while biting a piece off. "Since when does eating like a pig equate to being a turn on?"
"A girl that knows what she wants and gets it? I dunno...I reckon that's what it comes down to. It's a turn on for me, but I couldn't tell you what other guys go for. I suppose some of them want a bird with an appetite like one."
Hermione knew that there were plenty of girls like Harry was describing that he had found attractive in the past. Ginny was like that. She would eat dainty in front of boys and then chow down like her brother in privacy.
They finished their slices and Harry stood up to go put on his jammies. While he was gone, Hermione took the opportunity to refresh her mouth, put away the two spare slices of pizza, and to throw away the trash they had accumulated so far.
When Harry returned, he was freshly washed with his hair still damp. He'd thrown on an ash-grey v-neck t-shirt that was a size smaller than he usually wore. It was probably a few years old judging by the worn look of it. Before Harry had started work as an auror his frame had been lean. His upper body had been gaining muscle in the past 6 months that was hard not to notice when he was dressed like this.
Harry popped the movie in, turned off the lights and then dropped into his seat once more. Hermione scooted over closer and pulled the blanket off the back of the loveseat. Harry didn't even take his eyes off the screen as he reached a hand out to grab a corner of it and drape it over their laps.
The horror movie she picked was cheesy. It was more suspenseful than it was scary. In the first ten minutes of the movie, two people had died and the plot was almost fully revealed. There was really not a better time to do this.
She snuck her phone out of her pocket and checked her messages while watching Harry out of the corner of her eye. He was watching the movie so she opened her camera and selected "video" before hitting record. She cast a spell to disillusion her phone and then levitated it in front of them. She hoped that she got the positioning right.
Turning back to Harry, she took only a brief moment to admire his messy black hair and the shadow of a beard on his face.
Should she look at him until he looks back at her to kiss him or should she pull his face to hers while he's distracted by the movie?
Shit. He's looking at me.
Harry glanced at her and smiled but went back to watching the movie. Hermione draped her legs over Harry's lap and he moved his hands to allow her to do it. When she settled, he laid his hands on her thighs.
So far, everything's a go.
Licking her lips a bit, Hermione took a deep breath and leaned in. She reached and laid her hand across his jaw on the side of his face that was farthest from her. Harry smiled a bit as he watched the movie so she stroked his stubble. When he still watched the movie, she put a firmer pressure on his jaw which turned his head to face her. He smiled at her lopsided as though he was amused.
Do it, Granger!
With her other hand, she curled her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck that was overlong and curling at the ends.
She didn't look him in the eyes as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his.
Time seemed to stand still as she parted her lips and brushed them against Harry's.
One one thousand. Two one thousand.
She went to pull away but Harry's hand was gripping her hip and tugging her into his lap. He parted his lips and kissed her back earnestly. He tugged her body into him tightly and passionately. Her brain was blank as she felt his tongue chasing hers.
She couldn't help but moan a bit as her body flushed with heat as his other hand wrapped around the back of her neck and cupped her tightly.
Hermione was loathe to pull away. All she felt was jubilation at finally having her best friends' hands on her, his lips on hers. Oxygen was becoming an issue though.
Their lips separated with a soft smacking sound and all Hermione could do was stare up into his eyes.
Neither one of them said anything for a while.
Finally, Harry pressed a more chaste kiss to her lips and said, "I guess you beat me to it. Please tell me you got a good photo from it."
She clapped her hands to her mouth. "You mean you were going to do the challenge on me?"
THe hand on her thigh tightened. "Well, I was going to kiss my best friend for it but I think we're no longer just best friends so I don't have the opportunity any longer."
She shook her head in disbelief. "You'll always be my best friend, Harry James Potter. You'll just be more now."
When she finished editing the video to a short clip and transferring it to magical photo paper, she sent it in to the Daily Prophet as a submission. Their clip won the challenge and she took him to the Quidditch World Cup to celebrate their new status as boyfriend and girlfriend.
