Chapter 3- Common Room
"Shannon Matthews and Adrien Pucey, and lastly Derrick Belanger and Erin Clark were all given two detentions and docked twenty house points each for being 'out after curfew'." Sinstra wrapped up, using the term 'out after curfew' instead of saying the students were caught shagging or snogging somewhere. It didn't take the any new professors more than a few staff meetings, where each of them had to give reasons for the students receiving detentions, to find that it was no longer funny to tell the true story of just what the hormonal teenagers they were surrounded with were getting up to. Or where.
At the end of every month the indiscretions of the students were listed off and recorded, and any pertinent information shared and grievances aired. All of the professors generally zoned out as they went through this process until it was their turn. It was tedious but needed to be done in case one of the students caused trouble about it, or worse, a parent had something to say about the discipline.
"Wonderful." Albus Dumbledore clapped his hands together once. "If that is all." He looked around the table, giving the chance for any one of his staff to bring something else up. "Then you all may get back to your evenings." He nodded to Severus, indicating that he would like to speak to him one on one.
The room quickly emptied until it was just the two of them. "These meetings are making me miss the days that you were in attendance as a student." Albus sighed as the last leaving staff member closed the door behind them. "You may not have enjoyed it, but you have to admit, at least those Marauders had interesting ways of getting in trouble."
Severus did little more than a quick sneer at that. He had now grown accustomed to working alongside one of those Marauders that were the bane of his existence while he was a student but felt no need to 'reminisce' about their antics as they usually involved harassing him. Remus Lupin had apologized and had voiced how grateful he was he'd been brewing the Wolfsbane potion for him every month. But that was a deep wound that Severus did not want to acknowledge.
"Now, the reason I asked you to stay behind." Albus moved on. "Have you heard anything from your former... contacts lately?"
Severus' eyebrows went up slightly, clearly not expecting this question. "I have not." He looked at the older man carefully. "Have you heard something that makes you think I would have?" It had been five years since they'd last encountered what was left of Tom Riddle.
Albus shook his head. "I still do not suspect that he is gone entirely, but I must say, I had imagined having young Mr. Potter here at the school that there would be more conflict about him than there has been."
"You find it suspicious that he is not being attacked at every turn?" Severus asked skeptically.
Albus sighed and shook his head. "I am not sure what exactly I expected to happen. Of course, I am glad to see that he is having a rather normal experience here."
"The plan is still to tell him when he is of age?"
He nodded. "There seems to be no need to worry him yet. Let him enjoy one more year without this burden."
"And yet, I know you have tested him." Severus said, more as a challenge for the older man to refute it.
His eyes lost a bit of their twinkle at that. "I did." He admitted. "I made a grave mistake with Tom Riddle, I did not want to do the same with Harry Potter."
"I suspected as much."
"The little interest he showed in the Philosophers Stone, besides worrying about how well it was protected, was proof enough." Albus told him. He had been pleased that Harry didn't try to go after the stone. The set of challenges to get to it had been easy enough for a first year to figure out.
Once the alarm around the ward in the room with the Mirror of Erised had triggered it had saddened him greatly to think that young Harry had tried to go after it. But to discover that it was actually one of his own staff that had been trying to get it for Voldemort, that had shocked him immensely. He hadn't told any of the others about what was under Quirinus' turban, none but Severus. As only Severus had known that the stone had not been in anyone's possession but the Flammel's the whole time.
"Tell me." The Headmaster moved on. "How does he seem to be faring to you?"
Severus couldn't resist rolling his eyes. "While he is not the brightest student of his year, he is adequate at Potions." He said begrudgingly. "It is nice to see that he does not seem to have inherited his fathers pompous attitude."
"That attitude you remember may be hampered by some ill experiences on your part." Albus pointed out.
"Either way." Severus continued. "He seems to have his fathers taste in women however." He did sneer now. "If he doesn't stop spending so much time staring at the Weasley girl he will most certainly be blowing something up shortly for his lack of attention."
"Ah." Albus smiled. "Young love."
"Call it what you will. He is no different than any other teenage male in his year. Driven by hormones. You really expect him to be able to rise to the challenge? He hasn't shown any special skills that indicate it."
"I believe he has been extremely lucky in that regard. And he has surrounded himself with strong individuals-"
"You call Neville Longbottom a strong individual?" He couldn't resist cutting in.
"While mister Longbottom may be come across as meek, he has stood up against bullying among the younger years."
"How fortunate then that Death Eaters and the like happen to be younger then." Severus mocked.
"He is a good person." Albus stood his ground. "Miss Granger has also proved to be a good person, and the new Weasley siblings are too. You remember that two of their siblings were Head Boy's, and both Percy and Bill did a wonderful job in that post."
"Fine." He felt no need to lengthen this argument at all. Potter had surrounded himself with 'nice' friends, and he was in no way gathering followers. But it was hard to see how this boy could possibly be the one to defeat Lord Voldemort completely as the prophecy foretold.
"I see you are done with this conversation. I won't keep you any longer."
"Thank you. If I do hear anything, you know I will inform you."
()()()
It had been a month now that they'd been back at school. And he'd never felt more like a nervous coward in his life.
School was going fine, his friends were as great as ever, and Quidditch had been coming along brilliantly. The team was all completely working in sync, and he was sure that they'd be winning all of their games if the practices were any indication.
But he could not bring himself to ask out Ginny.
There had been so many opportunities as well.
Hogsmead weekend was coming up, she had offered to teach him how to swim, and there had been so many little pauses after their conversations that would have been the perfect chance to ask.
But he would choke up.
Neville was starting to tease him about it, and Hermione would give him these annoying 'knowing' looks. But Ginny was just so great, and pretty and funny. The thought that she might say 'no' or give him this pitying look that would just ruin their friendship irrevocably. He didn't want to chance it.
But he did want to chance it. If someone else asked her, and she said 'yes' he'd be crushed.
If only so he could get it over with and stop looking like an idiot in front of her. He'd been knocking things over, spilling food down his front, dropping things, basically just looking like a bumbling fool from his nerves. And she'd been so nice about it every time he stumbled over his words because she was looking at him with bright eyes and her amazing smile, never once taking the mickey.
Right now it was late, and he was sitting in the common room, sore and quite exhausted from the Quidditch practice earlier. But there was homework on the coffee table in front of him that needed to get done, and Hermione had been too pre-occupied with Ron for him to ask her for help. He really wanted to try to do that less this year as well. It would be nice to know how well he could do on his own merit.
"Harry?" came a sweet voice from the staircase behind him. "What are you still doing up?"
He turned his head and saw the girl he'd been obsessing over. "Erm, I was comfortable here, not tired yet." He offered weakly. It was going on eleven at night and Harry had been sitting on the floor with his back against the couch. The common room had slowly emptied of other students until he was the last one.
"Why are you coming down so late?" Ginny was dressed in her pajamas, which were a thin pair of shorts that stopped well above her knees and a fitted t-shirt. He praised whatever gods there were that she at least seemed to be wearing a bra underneath. Her hair was in a high ponytail on her head, and he thought she looked adorable. Like he should crawl right into bed with her, fall asleep and just spoon her all night.
It had been extra hard not to kiss her the night after the team bonding in the Prefect's Bathroom. He'd never really had a drink before, except for Butterbeer, and that didn't count. He had been all warm from the fire whiskey, and the evening had been excellent. He'd thought that maybe she wanted him to kiss her good night, but he was drunk, and after seeing her all evening in a bikini he was in desperate need of a wank.
Ginny came over and plopped down on the floor beside him. "I actually came down here to stretch a bit. There isn't enough room in my dorm, and the girls are all sleeping, so I wouldn't want to chance waking them."
"Stretch?" He asked, swallowing. He could only imagine the reaction 'little Harry' would have seeing that. Sure enough she brought her legs out in front of her in a 'V' formation and bent her self at the hips, reaching forward and bringing her torso to the floor.
"Yeah. I'm a bit sore. You see I have this really tyrannical Quidditch Captain that really put his team through the paces. I suspect he may be trying to prove himself." She teased him and turned her head to face him with a smile a sticking her tongue out at him a little.
Harry grabbed the back of his neck and ruffled his hair. She chuckled softly. "Yeah, sorry. First game is against Slytherin, and well. Most of the team is new. The Gryffindor/Slytherin game is an important one."
"Well tell that to my calf muscles. I think you owe me something for today's practice." She said raising her torso up and bringing her legs together, bending one of them up to twist her back and rest her opposite elbow on.
Harry smiled back. "Well you did do a really great job today. What would you like?" Her flirting always put him in a good mood.
"So glad you asked." She released herself from her position and came over to sit right beside him and draped one of her legs over his lap. "Take the pain away, Potter."
Harry's face slackened at that. She wanted him to touch her? Please say your arms, back and thighs are sore too! "I, um. I guess I could do that."
She bit her lip and smiled at him. "Mmm." She hummed as he started rubbing the underside of her calf. She lay her head on the couch cushion contently. "You are a very good captain by the way. Not actually a tyrant. I can see you're passionate about it. Oh, that feels good." She moaned.
Little Harry was now getting quite interested in this situation, and not liking the restrictive jeans Harry was wearing. His head though was actually grateful for the restrictive clothing, less chance that Ginny would notice. "Thanks." He shifted a bit uncomfortably.
"Does your back hurt?" She asked him.
He shook his head. "Bit stiff. Been working on my assignments all night like this. And practice from earlier." The shift had actually been to try and relieve some pressure on his groin.
Ginny pulled her leg out of his grasp. "I know just the thing." He wanted to protest so he could keep touching her, but then she stood up and sat on the couch behind him and put her legs on either side. "Pull your jumper off."
"Wha-what?" He asked flustered.
"Pull your jumper off." She repeated in that casual way that was the reason for his confusion of their relationship. "I'll give you a little rub down as well."
His mouth went dry. He didn't trust his voice to try and waive off the suggestion, but she was offering to touch him. He couldn't pass that up. He did as she said and she instantly started working away at his shoulders and he couldn't help all the groans that she was eliciting from him.
"My god your hard." She said as she worked.
Harry's eyes flew open at that, he hadn't even realized he'd shut them. It quickly dawned on him that she meant his muscles were hard and relaxed slightly, thoroughly enjoying her hands on him.
"When was the last time you stretched, or got a back rub?" She asked.
"Erm, I've never really done stretches, and I've never had a back rub." Harry managed to say before he groaned again as she worked her thumbs in circles down the side of his spine.
"What? Never? Then I'll just have to make this one extra good." She almost whispered to him. He moaned at that, and hoped she thought it was because of what her hands were doing, not because he was heavily aroused.
He knew he should try and think up some seriously un-erotic shit to try and calm himself down, but her hands felt so good that it was all he could focus on. And wondering if she'd let him return the favor.
"Hey Harry?" She asked after about five solid minutes of working on him.
"Yeah?" He managed, completely zoned out.
"Are you ever going to ask me out?"
His zen state was completely abandoned at that and he turned around on the floor to look at her. "What?! You. I. Really?" He wanted to make sure she was being serious, though why she would joke about that he didn't know.
She looked a little alarmed at his reaction. "If I was reading that wrong.."
"No! I just wasn't sure if you wanted me to. I've wanted to since I first saw you. But with you being new, and then that story about your bed time stories, and being just so... you, I didn't know if you'd be interested." He rambled.
"Harry." She smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I came up to you at Kings Cross because I thought you were cute. I liked you before I found out you were the guy from my bed time stories as a child." She lowered herself to the floor in front of him so their faces were inches away from each other. "I would have brought this up sooner, but I didn't want you to think I was just another fan girl."
He wanted to kiss her. It seemed like the right moment. But he was crap with girls. His eyes kept darting down to her lips and back up to her eyes. He leaned forward slightly and felt a burst of joy in his chest when she came the rest of the way to make their lips finally join together.
Kissing her was like being transported to a dream world. Her lips felt perfect against his, exactly the way he'd hoped they would. The dance their mouths played against each other was so natural, and it was making his brain fuzzy. She pulled back and her hands gripped his shirt.
"Come on." She hoisted herself back up onto the couch and he essentially crawled up her body to find her lips again before he settled on the couch beside her. She pulled him closer to her as she sunk down on the couch so they were laying down.
He used one arm for support so he didn't crush her and the other was firmly staked out at her waist. He had always wondered how snogging couples just knew how to move their heads so they didn't bump noses, and now he understood. They were like waves crashing against a beach with their movements, two concentric movements, shift the other way, repeat. It was by far the best feeling he'd ever felt, and he didn't want it to stop.
Harry also wanted to make sure that she didn't find out how very close to cumming in his pants he was with how close their lower halves were. But her determined hands were still massaging him. One was still roaming as it worked the muscles on his back, and the other. Oh! The other was massaging his scalp and making him thrust into the couch cushion as his lidded eyes rolled back in his head.
"We have to stop." He panted with difficulty after what felt like an eternity of being wrapped up in each other. As he opened his eyes he saw she looked suitably ravished. Her lips were so full from being snogged, and he coloring on her face reminded him of how she looked after getting off her broom. All windswept and satisfied.
"What?" She asked. She blinked up at him with unseeing eyes at first. "Why?" She swallowed.
"I'm, um. It's just that." How was he supposed to tell her he was so close to messing in his pants? That can't be something that a girl wants to hear. He shifted his lower half a little and saw some realization dawn on her eyes, then she flushed a little more.
"Oh." She smiled.
He lowered his face into the crook of her neck. "Sorry."
"I think it would be worse if I didn't get that kind of response from you." She chuckled and stroked the side of his face gently.
He raised his head to meet her eyes. "You're not, like, disgusted or anything?" He asked, ashamed.
She laughed outright at that. "No, of course not. You remember I was raised around six boys right? I know more about male anatomy than most girls my age would care too. The number of stories I've heard that I can't un-hear from my brothers." She shivered jokingly. "I'm quite pleased I can get you that worked up." She admitted coyly.
They smiled at each other. "So, will you go to Hogsmeade with me?" He asked.
"I'd love to." She replied. She tilted her head toward him for a kiss. "Will you go to breakfast with me tomorrow?"
"I'd love to.' He laughed and gave her another kiss as well. "How about all our shared classes?"
"Sure. How about we find a nice cozy alcove tomorrow evening?" She stuck her tongue between her teeth a bit and waggled her eyebrows at him.
"Definitely." He breathed out the answer. She raised her head forward and kissed him again.
"By the way." She smiled pulling back. "You are a very good kisser."
"Really?" Harry knew his eyes lit up at that. "I've never actually." He stopped himself. Most sixteen-year-olds had kissed at least one person before, right? He hadn't even kissed his Yule Ball partner. She'd run off with some boy from Beaubaton because Harry wasn't keen on dancing.
"What? Gotten feedback, or kissed before?" She asked him.
"Erm, kissed before." He blushed.
She ran both her hands through his hair and his eye's closed at the sensation. "Me either."
His eyes flew open. "You haven't?" How could that be possible? She was beautiful, and confident, didn't that mean she would have had plenty of opportunities? He couldn't possibly be the only guy that wanted her this way. Even Malfoy had tried to hit on her the first day on the train.
"No." She laughed lightly. "Home schooled. Remember?"
"Oh, right." He was actually glad of that. It meant that he and she were on the same level, experience wise. They could discover what they liked together. He trailed his eyes down her body.
"What?" She asked.
"Just, I've been trying not to look at you as much as I've wanted to in case you thought I was being a little creepy. I'm just enjoying the view." He blushed.
She giggled at him. "I like when you look at me. I quite enjoy looking at you too."
AN- It'll get more story oriented later. I promise. I just love the beginnings of relationships when everything is all new and exciting, and nervous.