Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that people like this story so far. Here's the next chapter. This one is longer than the last one. :)

In case you would like to know, the ships in this fic are Harry/Hermione, Neville/Ginny, Ron/Luna (minor focus), and there's some implied James/Lily.

Previously…

"Be quiet, will you? And I'm sure your father knows all about your forgetfulness. He is, after all, supposed to look after you. Do you think he has anything better to do in the afterlife?"

Harry grinned mischievously, "My mother keeps him busy, I bet you anything."

"HARRY! Ugh, that is NOT the mental image I want in my head right now!" Hermione groaned, and tried to return her focus on what she was reading.

Harry looked over his hands as if they were the most fascinating things in the world.

Silence reigned for several long minutes.

Chapter 2

"Hermione?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"I was just wondering what you were doing." He asked casually, just for the sake of conversation.

"I'm double-checking the information on love potions. Especially after what Neville told us. I thought that I had to do something, you know." Hermione looked over at Harry nervously, and then went back to reading.

Harry sighed. Of course she'd be worried about that. The other day Neville told both of them that Ginny had confided in him about her plan to use a love potion on another guy. And considering that Neville always seemed to show frustration over Ginny's never ending crush on Harry and how it was hurting the health of their relationship; there wasn't much doubt that the love potion's target was Harry himself. To make matters worse, no one knew for certain whom the actual potion maker was.

"Did you find anything helpful?" He wondered.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly, "Neville didn't exactly give us a whole lot to go on. I mean, he couldn't even find out who her accomplice was – the potion maker. But the thing I'm honestly worried about is the strength of the love potion. And the only way to figure that out is if we know how long the potion has been sitting for. But that would probably be the last thing Ginny will divulge. At this point, any possible antidote will take a while to make, and well, we wouldn't even know if we'd be making the right antidote...a strong enough antidote. Harry…"

Hermione looked at Harry with such an expression on her face that he just wanted to hug her and tell her that everything would be alright. It was just a stupid love potion after all – everything would turn out alright in the end. They'd find a way to get through to Ginny before disaster struck. They just had to.

Harry left his bed and went over to Hermione who had set the potions book on her bedside table, sitting right beside her. She laid her head on his shoulder, and he put his arms around her, whispering small comforting words to her.

"Listen to me, Hermione. Nothing. Bad. Is. Going. To. Happen. Trust me."

She looked up, shaking her head, "You don't understand, Harry. My guess is that Ginny has probably made the conclusion that anything but a very, very strong love potion will not work on you. She is ruthless when she wants something, Harry. And, I believe that she has made sure that the love potion will be strong enough to even influence you. This may simply all just be speculation, but she has held on to her crush for so long, and I doubt she is thinking very reasonably about what she is doing."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Well, clearly we wouldn't be here discussing this in the first place if she were "thinking very reasonably." It's getting late, Hermione…we should get to bed. We do have classes tomorrow."

Hermione nodded. Before Harry got up from her bed, Hermione squeezed his hand and whispered, "Would you sleep with me tonight, Harry? Please?"

"What do you mean? In your bed?"

Hermione looked quickly at him, and rushed to clarify, "I just want some company. I don't mean sex, Harry. Now I know my bed is not very big, but I'll take care of that with a spell. Don't you start laughing at me, Harry James Potter! It's your own fault your mind was in the gutter!"

Harry, still trying to stifle his laughter, put up both of his hands in defeat, and backed away as Hermione said the spell to enlarge the bed.

Harry sighed as they both lay down on the bed, back to back. He put his arm around her holding her close to him. He casually moved a stray hair of hers back behind her ear with his other hand. Hermione stiffened slightly at the small sensitive touch, but still continued to stroke his arm back and forth with her fingers. It was enough to give Harry a tingling shiver as he tried his best to ignore any unwanted feelings at the moment.

Maybe because it was so late, and he was very tired, he felt brave enough to ask a question that he never seemed to have the courage to ask.

"Hermione?"

"Mmhmm?" She mumbled sleepily. She turned to face him, smiling slightly at his somewhat nervous expression.

"I've been wondering – well – it's been on my mind for a while now actually. Where are we, Hermione? Relationship-wise?"

"What are you trying to say, Harry?"

Harry, frustrated, ran his hands through his hair in a vain effort to calm himself down, "Haven't you noticed? We've been together since last fall…and I feel that we're still stuck – "

Hermione interrupted him with her finger pressed firmly on his lips, "No Harry. It's too late for this sort of thing. We're both very tired, and we have to be awake in classes tomorrow. We need our sleep. We'll talk about our relationship status at another time. Alright?"

"Merlin, Hermione. You never give us a chance to discuss it! I mean, seriously, what is there to stop me from falling right into Ginny's little scheme?" Harry yelled, getting off the bed and glaring pointedly at Hermione.

"What did you say!" She yelled back, shocked that he would insinuate such a thing.

"I said, 'What. Is. There. To. Stop. Me!' Clearly not you because you don't give a damn about what I feel – what my feelings are on this 'relationship' of ours! We might as well been better off just staying friends!" He was spilling out the anger and hurt he had been feeling as of late. There was no turning back now.

Hermione started to reply, but Harry couldn't help noticing that she was brushing away tears from her eyes, "What is it that you want from me, Harry? What? I'm listening."

Harry tried to rack his brain for the right words to say. He sat back down on the bed, and looked resolutely into her brown eyes.

"We're stuck, Hermione," He began cautiously, "In our relationship. I just thought that it may be the time to move on to the next—to the next phase. We've waited long enough."

Hermione figured out what he was he talking about, but she shook her head in response, "No, we're not ready yet. I'm not ready yet. I told you, remember? Last year, I told you that I wanted to wait until marriage. It's too risky now with us still in school – and Voldemort still about."

"You're not going to get pregnant, Hermione. And Voldemort is not going to come right out and attack Hogwarts if he gets the slightest indication that we have been doing it. Just stop justifying your reasons. We've known each other since first year, Hermione. We've been friends for so long, a couple for over a year now, and I'm ready for this. Honestly, Hermione…I think we should take the next step."

"I'm really tired. Please let's just go to sleep, Harry." She sighed and turned away from him.

He muttered something under his breath, but then lay back down on the bed, eyes still open and looking up at the ceiling. He didn't feel remotely tired – sleep was the last thing on his mind at the moment.

Harry could tell that Hermione wasn't about to fall asleep any time soon. But before he could get her attention, she suddenly turned over and was facing him. And then, she jumped him. She had managed to straddle him, leaving him in complete shock and unable to move because of it. Hermione kissed him hard on the mouth, forcing him to open it as her tongue was teasing its way for entry. She continued kissing him and Harry found himself finding it hard to breathe with her tongue roaming inside of his mouth.

"Her—mi—one," He breathed, trying to push her away. She still persisted though, and started to lick his ear, which she well knew was a sensitive spot for Harry.

He shivered, but tried again to speak, "Hermione, stop. What's the meaning of this?"

Hermione threw up her hands, and moved off of Harry, looking for all the world as if she had a whole conspiracy plot planned out.

She said breathlessly, "Harry, we should break up."

TBC