Happily Ever After

By: reviewaholic

Disclaimer – I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, just the plot.

Chapter 2: A Little Flirtation

Flashback to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes…

It was the summer before their final year at Hogwarts and Hermione Granger, for once, had something other than her studies on her mind. In fact she was thinking of a curtain raven haired boy with glasses. She had realized how she felt about him after the final battle, when she almost lost him to the hands of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But she knew that she could never have his heart, so she just decided to submerge her feelings for him the best she could…but that was easier said than done.

Ginny on the other hand was smart enough to see that Hermione thought of Harry as more than a friend. So she – of course – had to play matchmaker. The wheels in Ginny's head had been turning since the beginning of summer. And she had tried her best to push them closer together, but there was always something or someone getting in the way of her plans. So it seemed that everyone else was either totally blind or didn't want them to get together. So she thought to seek help from her brothers Fred and George.

"Hey guys," Ginny greeted her two twin brothers.

"Hi Ginny," they both said in unison.

She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Have you noticed anything…different in the way that Hermione and Harry have been acting?"

Fred and George both looked over Ginny's head to look at the two pretending to brows in the shop. Fred squinted his eyes as if trying to focus a picture he couldn't see. "No," they said together. Ginny groaned and rolled her eyes at how thick her brothers were.

"Honestly doesn't anyone use there eyes any more?" she asked, but the question was more for the gods rather than them. "Can't you see the short glances to each other? The nerves smiles they exchange?" The twins just looked even more confused than before. "Well my point is that maybe you guys could help me get them together." So even though they couldn't see it themselves, they had always thought that Harry and Hermione should be together so they agreed to help.

"We'll need some time to come up with something," began George.

"But it shouldn't take too long," Fred finished, "we could get it to you around November or December."

"Perfect, but please guys," she began putting her hand together as if praying to her brothers, "don't mess this up."

"Come on Ginny," George began then Fred joined in the sentence, "what could possibly go wrong?"

End Flashback

It was early in the morning at Hogwarts and Harry Potter woke up at his usual time. And, as usual, he had to get up a half an hour earlier to wake the rest of his roommates up.

He walked over to Seamus first and pulled his pillow out from under his head and hit him with it. Seamus gave a grunt and swore at Harry under his breath. But this did not upset Harry because this was a daily ritual for him.

Next he went over to Neville, who was already almost falling off the bed. So Harry just had to give him a light shove get him out of the bed and wake him up.

Finally he went to his best friend, Ron Weasley. Ron was the most difficult to awaken for some strange reason... For this Harry had to take extreme measures ever morning. First he tried shaking him violently. And as usual that didn't work, so then he tried doing what he did with Neville. He slowly pushed him of the bed, Ron landed with a very loud thud that made everyone jump, even Harry. Now he was going to use his last measure on Ron. Harry groggily went to the bathroom and filled up a large glass of water. He was about to poor it on Ron, when Seamus stopped him.

"You know you don't have to do that mate," Seamus said.

Harry furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Well all you have to do is…" Seamus paused and bent over Ron so that he was almost right next to his ear, "Hey look! There goes Lavender, in a bikini, holding a plate of nachos!"

"WHERE!?" Ron half asked, half exclaimed, as if on queue.

He was wide awake without an ounce of drowsiness in his eyes.

Seamus just laughed and said, "Works every time."

"Wait, why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Harry asked; a little mad at his friend for keeping this from him. After all he had been breaking his back trying to get Ron out of bed for a while now.

"I always just thought it was funny," he answered with a chuckle. And Harry just gave him a light punch him in shoulder.

"Where? Where's the nach- I mean Lavender!" Ron asked still oblivious to the fact that he'd been tricked. Harry and Seamus just decided to let him figure it out on his own.

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Hermione was down in the common room sitting on the big red couch. She was always up this early from force of habit. She would always come down early to study, but this time was different.

She was sitting contently with a book in her hand, but she wasn't reading it. In fact she hadn't cracked a book all summer because of her current crush. The thought of wanting something she could never have crushed her inside.

Now I know why they call it a crush, she thought to herself. The she thought of something Ginny told her around the end of the summer, after she confronted Hermione about Harry, If you don't tell him soon you probably won't have a choice later. She'd wondered what Ginny meant by that, but decided to push it out of her mind a long time ago, knowing that he couldn't possibly like her back. She valued his friendship too much to ruin it with such a selfish move.

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Harry headed down to the common room to sit by himself, in silence for once. As soon as he hit the last step he stopped and his heart skipped a beat. For he was looking at what he thought was the most beautiful sight he'd ever laid his eyes on. It was one of his best friends Hermione Granger.

He had liked her ever since the beginning of last year, but he knew she couldn't feel the same why about him. After all she fancied Ron, not him, and he would never want to get in the way of what she wanted. All he wanted and all he would ever want is her happiness. And if she was happy with someone else, then that's what he wanted.

Yeah right, he thought. In his heart that was what he wanted, but there was another part of him that wanted her all for himself.

Then suddenly Hermione turned around, almost as if she sensed someone was behind her.

"Harry?" Hermione squeaked. Harry almost felt like running the other way. He was so nerves around her lately, and he didn't her finding out that he liked her. "What are you doing down here so early?"

"Um…I just felt like getting away from the noise of the dormitory un-until breakfast," Harry stuttered nervously. Smoooooth, he thought to himself.

Hermione gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Well that makes two of us." Harry smiled back at her and nodded. God how he loved her smile! He walked over to the couch and sat next to her, but he made the mistake of getting a little too close to her. This made him instantly even more nerves than before. His first thought was to move away from her, but as soon as he inhaled the sweet sent of her hair he would now be paralyzed from the neck up until she left. And as they sat in awkward silence they started swinging their feet and they accidentally brushed each others feet, which brought a shade of red to both of them.

Is she blushing? Harry thought to himself.

Is he blushing? Hermione thought to herself.

Nah! They both thought at the same time.

Harry was about to break the silence when all of a sudden a wild heard of elephants came running down the stairs…at least that's what it sounded like to Harry and Hermione. In reality it was all the hungry guys coming down from the dormitories and you wanta guess who was leading the bunch…yes it was Ron.

Always at the worst possible time, Harry thought, frustrated.

"Every morning," Hermione said, "my goodness you'd think they hadn't eaten in weeks, the way the run for food. Are all guys like this?" she asked.

"Not all of us," Harry stated with his famous grin attached.

"Well thank god for that," she said with a smile, as she patted his knee. This made him even redder than he was before.

I gotta get out of here before I start talking, he thought.

"Well I think we should also go before all the food is gone," Harry lied; he wasn't hungry in the least, all he could think of was the warmth of Hermione's touch.

"Sounds like a good idea," Hermione agreed, getting up as well.

"Shall I escort you Mademoiselle," he said using his good French accent.

Wow, she thought, that makes him sound sooo sexy. But getting over her very girly thoughts she said, "You shall."

A/N: I hope you liked this one don't forget to R&R.