After having a quite lengthy discussion about Rags' change in eye colour, Hermione and Rags decided that if they could not find anything about the phenomenon in the library that Rags should ask Professor Dumbledore when he dropped off his memories for the Headmaster to review.
Rags and Hermione entered the Great Hall and met up with Hermione and Ginny who told the other two that they had left Ron in the Room of Requirement to cool off, and to experience Ginny's rather expertly cast Bat Bogey Hex. However it was during lunch where the whole of Gryffindor, most of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and even two or three Slytherin's, mainly girls, welcomed Rags back. Rags smiled throughout the whole affair, taking it all with good humour and maturity, even all the giggling girls who wanted to look at his 'tattoo' and just 'had' to touch it, and the muscled arm that it was attached too of course.
This lead to Hermione's gradually rising temper, she wasn't impressed with all these girls that were pawing at her boyfriend, she wasn't annoyed at him, she had been at first but after he had diffused some of the more forward girls with a small smile and polite conversation, she couldn't blame him, he was behaving himself.
That didn't mean that she had to like it, especially when someone that she didn't have a lot of time for ran her hands over the mark, including the powerful muscles on either side, Cho Chang was not Hermione's favourite person at the moment, she hadn't been really keen on the girl since her friend Marietta Edgecombe had betrayed the DA to Umbridge the previous year.
And now that same Cho Chang who brought that traitor to the DA was flirting rather shamelessly with her boyfriend, thrusting out her, in all honesty, decent sized chest and twirling a strand of her raven colored hair with one hand. Hermione was about to get up from her seat and say something, that would probably end up with the rest of Hogwarts seeing a catfight in the Great Hall.
Just as she was rising she felt a hand on her arm, glancing to her left she saw the slightly smiling face of Ginny Weasley who pulled her down and said "Don't worry, look at his body language, he is being friendly but giving her no opportunity to take her flirtation any further, all that's happening is that she is beginning to look like a slag in front of the whole school. Also Harry's sitting next to him, he won't let anything happen."
After the comforting words of her friend Hermione relaxed slightly and managed to see the amusement in the situation. Her amusement only grew when he saw how frustrated Cho was becoming with Rags completely ignoring what she was offering.
"You would think that she would get the idea, I mean what does he have to do? Walk around with a sign saying he is taken?" Hermione asked Ginny, who smirked in return.
"Welcome to my world Hermione, not a day goes by without some little strumpet coming along to try to take Harry away from me. Sometimes I'm scared that one of them will succeed, you won't believe the amount of consoling that I needed when Cho tired to get back with Harry at the beginning of the year, but you will realise something as I did, Harry isn't like that and I believe that Rags isn't like that either." Ginny smiled and motioned Hermione closer and said so that only they could hear "He cares too much about you, anyone can see that, well anyone who isn't trying to get his clothes off."
Both of them had a laugh at that, a laugh that only got stronger when Cho stalked off back to the Ravenclaw table, her plan unfulfilled, she sat herself down next to her best friend, Marietta, who still had very faint acne on her face that spelled out SNEAK, in little scars, for all to see.
Rags then looked across the table and smiled at Hermione, she met his gaze and raised one eyebrow indicating that she wondered what he thought of the whole situation. He just rolled his eyes and grinned slightly, causing them both to chuckle, it was quite funny to the two of them that someone would try to split them up, especially considering the conversation that they had just had about how they felt about one another.
Even some of the teachers had come over and chatted to Rags, welcoming him back to 'the land of the living' as Professor Flitwick had jokingly put it, earning a few snickers from the surrounding Gryffindor's, the part-goblin may be the head of Ravenclaw House, but the Gryffindor's had sort of adopted him, as they had all realized that the easy going Charms Professor's door was always open for those who need someone to talk to as in all honesty McGonagall was bloody scary.
After an enjoyable lunch the two couples left the Great Hall to return to the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry with his arm around Ginny happily chatting about Quidditch, and more importantly the first Quidditch game of the season Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, following the Quidditch happy couple was Rags and Hermione hand in hand who were not talking about the wizarding worlds favorite sport, but rather the Charms work that Rags had missed while he was in the Hospital Wing.
--
Almost a week had past since the morning that Rags had woken up, and the same young man had found his usually manageable daily schedule thrown completely for a loop as he tried to juggle his usual lessons, additional lessons with his professors to make up for the work that he had missed while he was unconscious.
He was also trying to fit in flying practice with Harry, who was determined to make him the best Beater that he possibly could, so he could make his debut against Slytherin with as much confidence as possible, he was also trying to find the time to relax with Hermione, who, due to the importance that she placed on studying, understood that his schedule, at least for the next few weeks, would be quite hectic.
But even with all of these things going on, he kept disappearing at night for some reason; he would often relax during the evenings with his friends and girlfriend but once they drifted off to bed, often when the clock was approaching midnight, he would head off somewhere else, but would be waiting for them in the Common Room as usual when they woke up and made their way down to breakfast.
It was this little disappearing act that had gotten Hermione curious, but whenever she mentioned it to him he always said 'It's a surprise' or 'You'll find out soon enough', or the most infuriating 'Don't worry about it' it infuriated her, not to the extent that she was angry with him, but to the extent that she told Ginny about it, and the red head dropped a bombshell during that conversation.
"Well of course it's a surprise, he wouldn't keep on disappearing and not tell you about it would he, if it wasn't?" Hermione looked at her friend in shock before managing to ask.
"You know where he is going don't you?" at the ever so slight smug look on the other girl's face Hermione had her answer. "Why you little traitor" she said with no small amount of humor in her voice "you knew all along, knew how much it annoyed me and you didn't tell me."
Ginny just laughed a Hermione "Well" she said "it was extremely funny watching you get all hot and bothered about it, but don't worry its nothing sinister or strange; although I have a vague idea what he is doing I have no idea as to the specifics."
Seeing her friend relax a little she said "Well now on to more important things, while the boys are down on the Quidditch pitch I want to know what your wearing down to Hogsmeade tomorrow."
Hermione looked at her friend in slight confusion "What do you mean 'What will I be wearing?' I'll probably go down in a t-shirt with a jumper, nice warm coat and jeans" seeing the slightly calculating look in the redhead's eye she asked slightly cautiously "What are you planning?"
Ginny smirked a little and said "Well you could go like that, or you could go in something a little bit more….ah how can I put this delicately, girly?"
Hermione huffed and crossed her arms and said "I am a girl thank you very much, and I'm sure that Rags knows this too."
Ginny snorted at her friend's affronted behavior "Oh I'm sure he knows it would be rather disturbing if he had been thinking that he had been snogging a guy for the last week." Hermione and Ginny, even though it was the latter's thought, found that situation rather disturbing.
"No what I mean is, well the guy is obviously completely under your thumb, why not dress in something to really get his attention. As Fleur would say 'get his blood boiling' it's just a thought though, you don't have to do anything about it." But judging from the small smile and the thoughtful expression on Hermione's face, the older girl was seriously considering what Ginny had said, and this made the redhead smirk slightly, Rags wouldn't know what hit him, and there was no reason that she couldn't have a little fun and dress up a little to impress Harry, just for Hermione's moral support of course.
--
At the same moment Hermione and Ginny were planning their clothing, and subsequent day in Hogsmeade for tomorrow, Rags and Harry were making their way up from the Quidditch pitch back towards the comforting, and thankfully warm, lights of Hogwarts. Harry had stepped up the Quidditch Team practices to try to get in as much practice as they possibly could in an effort to go out and completely destroy Slytherin in their upcoming match, but he had been going out with Rags quite regularly in an effort to bolster his confidence and skill on a broom, at the time of the Quidditch trials he had been average, now he was good, still needed work, but good nonetheless.
"So what did Dumbledore have to say about your eye color change thing?" Harry asked as the two Gryffindor's walked through Hogwarts grounds, taking the quickest way back to the castle, the days were getting cooler and the nights were not overly pleasant when you had spent the last hour sweating yourself stupid.
Rags snorted in amusement "Eye color change thing? Very eloquent Harry, you'd think that by spending the better part of the last five and-a-bit years as the best friend of the smartest witch in centuries your vocabulary would be better."
Harry glared at his fiend and said "Ha, ha, Rags excuse me while I stitch myself up. If you have something better to call it then by all means tell me so that I can 'expand my vocabulary' as you put it, but seriously what did the Headmaster say?"
Rags sighed hefted his broom onto his shoulder and ran his other hand through his long hair, he glanced at Harry and said "He didn't say much, except that he thinks it is linked to my emotions somehow, and that when it happens any magic that I do should be strengthened far beyond what any normal spell should be, although he was adamant that with age and control I should able to do it at will whereas right now I don't even have a clue as to when I'm using it, except it seems to happen when I'm pissed off at something, or someone."
Harry nodded his head "Well I guess you just have to trust Dumbledore on this, I mean yes the man is completely off his rocker, just look at his robes. But when it comes to magic the old coot knows what he is on about. I wonder if the eye thing happens to everyone, or just certain people?"
Rags replied by saying "Dumbledore said it depends of many different contributing factors, family history, if there is a specific ability or 'power' passed through either of your family bloodlines, even the size of your magical core. So I'm not sure, as long as it works when I need it I'm not really all that bothered about the mechanics of the thing."
About two seconds later any passer by would have seen the two friends laughing at the unintentional double entendre, neither of them could understand why the situation was so funny, not that they really cared either way, it just felt good to laugh about something that was silly, something that guys their age should be laughing about.
The two friends were still chuckling and joking by the time they entered the Gryffindor Common Room, and in typical adolescent male fashion they were completely oblivious to some of the reactions of the female Gryffindor's had at their appearance.
They were as opposite as night and day; Harry was no longer the scrawny almost emaciated little boy that had showed up at Hogwarts in his first year, now he was taller stronger and faster. He was no muscle bound monstrosity, as most of the girls that had taken notice of him, much to Ginny's annoyance, noted his appearance to that of something lean, like a stalking great cat or a running greyhound, his muscles lean built for speed rather than strength. Combined with his shock of black hair, piercing green eyes and you had a potent mix for female hormonal pleasure.
Rags was almost the exact opposite he resembled his Viking ancestors in an uncanny way, his piercing stormy eyes, long blonde hair, his tall broad stature and most obviously to the girls of Gryffindor, his bulging muscles. The way he walked in was signaling, unconsciously, to the amassed Gryffindor's that no matter what stepping in his way, it would be beaten into submission before it had a chance to blink, but he, like Harry, had his own kind of grace about him. In short his current appearance screamed tattooed hunk to all and sundry, much to Hermione irritation, even if she was enjoying the view, but then again she was allowed to.
Combined with the pair's good looks and sweat soaked shirts, the two of them were the object of almost all the Gryffindor girls eyes, much to the ire of the Gryffindor guys, who were not fond of the competition even if the two Quidditch players were taken already.
Giving their girlfriends a quick kiss on the cheek, both had been quite adamant that neither of the two men were allowed to kiss them properly, let alone hug them, while they were so sweaty and according to Hermione, 'disgusting'.
After excusing themselves to go get a quick shower and change into something more comfortable, and more suitable for dinner and a relaxing evening of homework, back breaking study and of course tedious textual reading in the Gryffindor Common Room.
Funnily enough it was Ginny who noticed all the longing looks her boyfriend and friend were getting, slowly mischievous smile crossed her face and she tugged on Hermione's arm to get her attention.
"Hey Hermione, would you be interested in aiding me in an endeavor that involves those gorgeous hunks that just wandered past, no shirts, and most of the girls in Gryffindor being shown what they cannot have?"
Hermione looked confuse for a moment before a small smirk crossed her own features before she said "I'm all ears, what did you have planned?"
--
About fifteen minutes later Harry came down the stairs that lead to the boys dorms, Rags following a few minutes later, Harry flopped down on the large seat, effectively sitting on Ginny's lap earning him a swat on the head and an annoyed "Oi" from his girlfriend.
Thankfully for Hermione Rags was more restrained, he didn't flop down on top of her, something that she was very grateful for, no one would be able to call Rags fat but seeing as he was so well built and strong his muscles made him rather…heavy to put it delicately, and Hermione had no interest in having her boyfriend drop on her from a standing start.
She did however smile when he sat down next to her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, he was still getting used to showing affection in public, but she had at least gotten him to hug and hold her hand when other students were around, she knew that it wasn't because he was embarrassed to be with her, it was because of his childhood and that he was naturally a very private person.
Glancing at the book in his hand she noticed that he was reading up on his Charms work, Professor Flitwick had set them a rather interesting assignment; they were to try to combine two basic Charms into one spell that would allow them to be used at the same time, the diminutive teacher had allowed them until after the Christmas holiday to try to get the incantation, spell work and wand movements right.
It was an interesting assignment as you didn't need to successfully complete a joined spell to receive an O; you had to write a journal including your research and what you were trying to do, Hermione was glad that Rags was making a head start on the work, for two reasons, it meant that he was taking an interest in his schooling and not just bunking off whenever he felt like it, and secondly it meant that she was not the only one who had begun the assignment, so she had someone to study with.
The friendly silence was broken when the four heard a tapping on the window of the Common Room, where a rather impressive post owl was sitting on the sill giving the group a look that quite effectively said 'Get off your collective arse and let me in'.
It was Ginny, who in an impressive display of strength, dumped Harry onto the Common Room floor, drawing quite a few snickers from Rags and Hermione, as well as the rest of the Gryffindor's in the room, most notably Neville, Dean and Seamus, who went and opened the window and took the letter from the owl before it gave an indignant hoot and flew out the window.
"It's from the twins" she said as she dropped down into, the now seated Harry's lap. Opening it she grinned and said "It says that they will be coming up for the first Quidditch match of the season, they are going to be doing some advertisement or their shop and…it seems that someone has told them about you Rags, and they want to meet you, they are also asking me and Harry about you." She looked up into Rags' confused look and continued.
"I would hazard a guess that Ron blabbed to the twins that you were bullying him and that you have turned Harry, Hermione and I against him, bloody prat."
Rags shrugged his large shoulders and said "Well at least it gives me a chance to put faces to all the stories that I have heard about the two of them, if I can convince them that I'm not an arse they might agree to give me some tips for any future Quidditch games."
Harry nodded, the twins were excellent at two things, jokes and pranks and being Beaters, and if Rags wanted to find himself some coaches on the sport then he had picked two of the best.
Not long after the letter had been read Hermione and Ginny unexpectedly excused themselves for the evening, stating that they needed to go back to the Gryffindor Girls dorms as they were both extremely tired, neither Harry or Rags bought this story as both girls had a small mischievous smile on their faces, after giving their boyfriends a final kiss goodnight to two beauties made their way up to the dorms to get their outfits ready for tomorrow, not that Rags and Harry had any idea what was going on, but they had an idea that something was going on.
No sooner than the pair of girls had disappeared up the staircase to the girls dorms Harry leaned closer to Rags and asked "Rags you've been in some pretty dangerous situations before right?"
Rags nodded his head, not knowing where Harry was going with his train of thought, but decided to let the green eyed man go with it and see what happened.
"Well, I'd class this situation as dangerous" Harry's glace up to the girls dorms let Rags know exactly what he was referring to "I was wondering if you had any advice on how to handle it and survive at the same time?"
Rags was fighting to keep a smile off his face when he replied "Well there is only once course of action in a situation like this" he adopted a resigned look on his face as he said " and its running for your life, don't stop cause it'll be hell on earth if they catch you."
This was too much for the two friends and they quickly dissolved into laughter that could probably be heard in Dumbledore's office half way across the school.
--
The following morning found a nervous Rags and Harry waiting for Hermione and Ginny in the Gryffindor Common Room, that nervousness had almost progressed to outright terror when Lavender Brown came down from the dorms with a message saying that the two of them would meet the boys at breakfast as they were still 'Getting Ready' that single phrase almost made Harry go back down to the Chamber of Secrets and see if there was another Basilisk down there, glancing at his friend it looked like Rags would accept the invitation to come along too.
The two friends were eating breakfast, albeit a small one on account of their nerves, all things considered this was probably going to be classified as both of their official 'first dates' with their girlfriends, and could very well make determine whether or not they were talked too for the next week or so, depending on the success of the day.
Both boys head snapped round to look at the door as a fourth year Gryffindor boy echoed the words that had been spoken at the Yule Ball "Wow is that Granger?"
Rags felt as though his heart had stopped, yes it was a Hermione, but a Hermione reminiscent of her fourth year, a girl who had gone all out to impress someone, a very lucky someone in Rags' own humble opinion especially if he was that someone was him.
Hermione was dressed so differently from her norm that people were shocked and amazed enough that they almost didn't recognize her until they had taken a second, or in some Slytherin's cases a third look. Her hair was swept up into a loose flowing ponytail, with a few strands that trailed down in front of her face, giving it an attractive innocent look. Hermione had donned a tight blue t-shirt that showed both a hint of cleavage and a considerable amount of midriff, especially for a Hogwarts student, combined with knee high tan colored boots and, in Rags' opinion, white jeans that looked like they were painted on.
Before she had walked into the Great Hall Hermione had practically been shaking with nerves, she hardly ever dressed up, and had never put in the amount of time to make herself look like she did now, especially to impress a guy. But seeing the expressions on everyone's face, and Ginny's parting words of encouragement ringing in her ears, gave her the confidence to walk into the Great hall with her head held high.
Seeing Rags' wide eyed and opened mouthed expression, brought a small self satisfied smirk to Hermione's face, and a slight sashay to her hips as she walked down the Gryffindor table.
When she reached Rags she acted as though everything was normal, she leant down and kissed him on the cheek "Morning Rags, ready for Hogsmeade?" With that she sat down opposite him and got herself some breakfast, and waited for him to say anything.
The simple act of asking him a question seemed to snap Rags out of his silence and a broad smile filtered across his face. "Wow Hermione you look fantastic" he exclaimed, an exclamation that broadened Hermione's own smile, it was always nice to be paid a compliment, especially when you were someone that didn't get many.
Out of the corner of his eye Rags noticed Ginny coming into the Hall dressed very similarly to Hermione, and Harry's reaction that was surprisingly familiar to his own, and deep down in his soul he knew that today was going to be a good day.
--
The four friends made their way down to the Entrance Hall in preparation for their leaving of Hogwarts and spending the day at the wizarding village of Hogsmeade. Rags, for one, was looking forward to this day with barely contained excitement, excitement that brought a smile to his friends faces, seeing the normally serious Norwegian so 'bouncy', Ginny put it, was quite humorous, but Rags just ignored their smiles.
His excitement was due to two things, firstly, as everyone knew, he was looking forward to seeing Hogsmeade and spending the day with Hermione, on their first 'official' date, secondly he had something in the inside pocket of his new Dragon leather jacket that he wanted to give to Hermione, it was in a long intricately carved wooden box, a box he kept checking when no one was looking at him, it would be just his luck to go and loose this thing, something that he had spent so much time on, and then loose it on the day that he wanted to give it to the girl that it was meant for.
None of the group were surprised that Rags was able to see the Thestrals that were drawing the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade, even though the dread steeds could only be seen by someone who had seen death, and as such Ginny and Hermione worried that it would remind Harry and Rags of the tragedies and horrors that each of them had seen in their lives.
But their fears were unfounded, Harry was introducing Rags to a particular Thestral, that Ginny pointed out could have very well have been the one that Harry rode to the Department of Mysteries last year. What's more Rags seemed to be fascinated by the creatures, something for which Hermione was proud of him for, even though Thestrals had a dark place in wizarding society, especially because of the prerequisites that were required in order to see them, Rag didn't judge them, he just thought that they were interesting creatures that he wanted to lean more about.
The four were chatting amicably in their carriage, in which they ere lucky enough that none of Harry's fan club, and Rags increasingly large amount of female fangirls, followed them into, when Ginny came up with a great idea.
"Hey everyone I just had a brain wave" she stuck her tongue out at Rags as she heard him whisper to Hermione 'do you think it hurt?' before she continued "Rags quiet, well you know that there is that new shop that has opened in Hogsmeade just last month, Collywater's Costumes for all Occasions" at the answering nods from Harry and Hermione, and Rags' shrug she unveiled her plan.
"Seeing as we are all going to the Halloween Fancy Dress Ball, I thought that it might be fun if we didn't let our dates know what we were going as" at their confused looks she sighed dramatically and said "great I'm friends with the dunderheads" before getting smacked on the arm by a grinning Hermione, the boys were smart enough to stay out of it.
"What I mean is, when we get to Hogsmeade why don't we all head off to Honeydukes for some chocolate, then I'll take Rags around Hogsmeade showing him the sights, while you Harry and Hermione go get your costumes sorted out, or at least get an idea, when your done we'll meet you at Honeydukes again and you two can go to Zonkos and Rags and I'll go costume hunting, we can meet later at Zonkos and then we can go on our separate dates after lunch. How does that sound?"
Hermione turned to her friend and said "Wouldn't it make more sense for us girls to get our outfits together, and the boys to get theirs?"
Ginny smirked and said "Do you honestly think that the two of them have the cognitive capacity to pick out costumes that would work with ours; we've discussed the kind of costume that we each want so we can help out the boys and still have it be a surprise on Halloween."
Rags looked at Harry, then at the two talking girls and said "Hey Harry, we just got burned didn't we?"
Harry just sighed and said "Yep, get used to it mate."
Ginny beamed when everyone thought it was a good idea, the grin turned slightly goofy when Harry kissed her senseless proclaiming that she was a genius, something that caused the other two in the carriage to snigger quietly to themselves, although secretly knowing that they were not much better.
--
Rags immediately loved Hogsmeade, the quaint village touched something inside of him, something that knew that he would come back here, as to him, someone who had lead a very unpleasant life, the quiet little village was somewhere he felt at peace, a place that was definitely worth a return visit.
The other place that had a profound effect on the young man was Honeydukes, seeing all the mountainous slabs of chocolate, the different sweets, and the crowds of smiling students brought a smile to the normally reserved Norwegian, but it didn't stop his mouth from watering, one of the lesser known facts about Rags was that he suffered from a rather severe condition, known to all as 'sweet tooth', no pie or crumble was safe at the Gryffindor table when he was nearby.
After indulging themselves on some rather excellent Honeydukes chocolate Rags and Ginny wandered off so that Rags could have a look at some of the other shops that were open, while Harry and Hermione made their way over to the costume shop, they were lucky that they chose to go when they did, seeing as the shop wasn't all that well known so a majority of the students hadn't been there yet, so there was still many costumes to chose from.
The pair of them had spent a little longer than planned in the costume shop, but that was fine with both Harry and Hermione, as they had not been able to spend as much talking, not like they used to in previous years, as this year, even though the year was still young, had already been a little hectic.
But while they had been at the shop they had been able to complete both of their goals they had talked about everything, ranging from how the remainder of their summers had gone after Hermione had left Headquarters, what they thought about how Ron had been acting, and after that unpleasant conversation, they moved onto the topic of Rags.
Hermione had not told Ginny and Harry about what she had seen inside of Rags' memories, as she had felt that it hadn't been her place to talk about it, and the other couple had respected that wish, but she had talked to them about how he still seemed to have unresolved issues with things, and she gave Harry one of her famous Hermione Granger hugs when she heard that later in the weekend Harry was planning to sit down with Rags and try to talk to him a bit about his experiences, seeing as they were similar to his own, he thought that he could help.
They had each found a costume that each had thought appropriate, costumes of which they both approved off even if they were on the pricey side, Harry had made Hermione's day so far by saying that if he wasn't taken he would seriously consider asking Hermione out after he had seen her in her costume, Rags wouldn't know what hit him.
--
In the meantime Ginny and Rags had walked around and seen most of the interesting sights that there were to see in Hogsmeade, at the moment they were standing outside the Shrieking Shack, Ginny was telling Rags a bit more about its history.
Glancing at her watch she realized that it was time for her and Rags to head back to Honeydukes to meet the others, as they too needed to get their costumes, she was looking forward to it so much that she was grinning like a lunatic, Rags didn't notice he was to preoccupied with what he was planning to do later today.
The four of them met up at Honeydukes again before continuing on their separate ways, Harry and Hermione over to Zonkos, and Ginny and Rags over to Collywater's to get their own costumes.
They didn't take as long as Harry and Hermione, since Ginny practically already knew what she wanted to get as a costume, Rags' wolf whistle only confirmed what she wanted to hear, it was Rags who required the time, firstly it was hard to find a costume that fit his larger size, and secondly to find something that he wanted, he had a vague idea that on what he wanted but finding it was another matter. When he found what he wanted, and at a price that could match his budget, he only had about one hundred galleons to his name, until he managed to go to Gringotts he would have to rely on what was in his pocket, but after seeing him in it and his ideas for where he wanted to take the costume Ginny smiled and said only one thing.
"Do it, it sounds hot when you put it like that."
Rags just smirked and said "You're not the one I need to hear that from."
Ginny just laughed, Rags soon joined her, they left the store happy in the knowledge that their packages would be waiting for them in their school trunks in their dorms via Hogwarts House Elf.
--
The four of them met back up outside of the Three Broomsticks for some lunch, you could practically hear the stomachs rumbling from the other side of the town, although it may have had something to do with the delicious smells that were coming from the friendly pub, it was obvious Madame Rosmerta was cooking up something special.
Ginny and Harry wandered off to find a table while Hermione with Rag in tow, went to the bar to order the first round of Butterbeer and to tell Madame Rosmerta that they would be staying for lunch, and to come over and take their orders after their first drink.
Madame Rosmerta chatted to the two young people at the bar for a few moments; she enjoyed talking to the students that came into her establishment, they were so full of life and laughter it was hard not to have your spirits uplifted when you talked to them. Needless to say, she had known Hermione Granger and her friends for several years but the young man that was standing next to her was a complete mystery, Rosmerta had never seen him before, she would have remembered such a striking young man.
After getting their drinks Rags and Hermione carried them back to the table that Harry and Ginny had picked out. The four of them sat chatting about nothing in particular, they had come to an unspoken agreement that they would try to avoid all the dark and murky topics that they had to talk about sometime, but today was purely for fun, as Rags found out after he ahd eaten a sweet that Harry gave him, one of Fred and George's Canary Creams, turning him into a canary for a few minutes.
Rags was not impressed when he finally returned to being a human, but glancing at the scattered yellow feathers that were lying round the chair he was sitting in he was able to see the humor of the situation and burst out laughing. They picked up their menus, with Rags forcing Harry to promise not to slip anything into his food that may or may not change his physical appearance, Harry still laughing at the shocked expression that had been on both Rags the person and Rags the canary, managed to nod his head in acquisition of his friend's demands.
Lunch was an enjoyable affair, the food was, as usual, excellent and the conversation mimicked this, not that they were able to get much out of Rags during lunch as he was exploring the culinary delights of Madame Rosmerta' braised lamb shanks and mashed potatoes. Lunch however did come to an end and the four of them split apart, intending to spend the rest of the day in Hogsmeade as couples, but with plans to meet up before the had to return to Hogwarts so they could go up to the castle together. Harry and Ginny wondered off to some part of Hogsmeade, probably to the Quidditch shop that was sporting the latest fashion in sporting wear, but trying to stay as far away from Madame Puddifoot's tea house as was humanly possible, whilst still staying in the same town.
Rags had different ideas though; as he and Hermione left The Three Broomsticks he took her hand in his and began to lead her towards the Shrieking Shack. "Rags, why are we going to the Shrieking Shack? You know I've already been there don't you?" she asked, a little amused at his behavior, she really wanted to go to the bookshop at some point today.
Rags just smiled at her and said "Trust me ok. After this we can go wherever you want to go, I just want to go somewhere where we aren't going to be interrupted" he paused for a minute and took in Hermione's face, who was trying to hide her amusement "and that isn't supposed to be as creepy as it sounds okay?" he managed to say with a grin, and control his embarrassment.
Hermione, deciding to be a little daring, gave Rags a sultry look and said "That's a pity; I was wondering what you wanted to do with me when we were 'alone' Mr. Valerian?"
The reaction she got was not one that she suspected she was going to get, instead of him turning bright red with embarrassment, or stuttering his words; he stopped walking and looked at her.
He then gave her a smoldering look and took in her appearance, from her boots, skin tight jeans, tight t-shirt and snug unzipped jacket, then looking her in the eyes he gave her a smirk that could only be described as 'sexy as hell' and said.
"Play your cards right Granger and who knows what could happen" he then took her hand again and walked towards the Shrieking Shack, pretending not to notice Hermione's face going the same color as Ginny's hair.
He grinned to himself when Hermione wasn't looking, he could feel himself changing, not in any negative or weird way, but in a good way. The more time that the spent around Hermione, Harry and Ginny, the better he felt, he felt more alive, happier and more playful, evidence of which was his comment to Hermione, something that he wouldn't have done had they not been together, and that he wouldn't even have contemplated at the beginning of the year.
Soon Rags and Hermione were standing close by the Shrieking Shack; Hermione noticed that for the first time that day, Rags looked a little nervous about something. Several ideas were going around in her head about what he could be up to, and coming out here for a snog in nature wasn't very high on that list, she figured that this was something that would be much more monumental.
Rags turned to face Hermione and took both of her hands in his and gave her a shy smile "You know this was a lot easier to do when all I had to do was think about it" he said, Hermione just grinned, waiting for him to go on, knowing that he would continue when he was ready.
"Oh sod it" Rags said with a small smile, which brought an identical one to Hermione's face at the use of the very British expletive, "I'll just go with Dizzy's idea then."
He reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a plainly carved wooden box which he gently passed over to Hermione who looked at it in shock, firstly she was amazed the Rags got her a present, and secondly she was immensely curious as to what was in it. But her reaction to what she saw in it was vastly different to what she was expecting, so much so that she gasped in shock.
Inside was a pendant on a long silver chain, it was stunning, the chain was a simple one, long and thin made from delicate, simple chain links of pure shining silver, but the pendant drew her eyes almost immediately. It was made of gold, a little larger and thinner than a standard galleon piece that glimmered in the weak October sunlight, decorating the piece were Nordic swirls in the same shining silver as the chain. There was something ever so slightly similar about the design for the piece, the darkened metallic swirls on either side of the silver ones that seemed to pull at her memory.
"Rags this is… it's beautiful" she exclaimed taking the pendant from its resting place and letting it playfully dangle from her fingertips, the weak sun making patterns of golden fire across the burnished surface "the workmanship alone it absolutely exquisite."
Hermione looked up into Rags' face and saw him with a small smile adoring his handsome face, "What?" she asked him wondering what he was smiling about.
Rags' smile grew a little wider, although on the inside he was jumping for joy that his gift had been well received, seeing as he had never been able to give anything nice to anyone special so he was a little nervous how Hermione would react to the pendant.
"Oh it's nothing really important Hermione, just that a craftsman likes to hear that his work is appreciated."
Hermione's eyes grew a little wider as he finished "You MADE this…for me? Why? I mean I love it, it's gorgeous but why?"
Rags' smile took on a slightly sad look and he said "Well two reasons really firstly I understand that people who are together give gifts to show affection on special days, and I feel that this is a special day. Secondly I've never really had anyone special enough to give a gift like this to until I met you, and I suppose you know the rest of that story."
Hermione couldn't form an answer; the fact that he had made something so special or their first date astounded her, that he could be so thoughtful however was completely within his character to give something that he made, rather than something the he had just gone out and bought.
Smiling brightly Hermione unclasped the chain and handed it to Rags, turning around so that her back was to him Hermione lifted her long, thick hair off the back of her neck in a silent sign to ask Rags to help her put the pendant on.
Rags carefully draped the pendant around Hermione's neck, his fingers lingering slightly on the soft skin beneath the chain, and then slowly moving back through her hair as he finished, not seeing Hermione gently touch the pendant as it hung between her breasts. What he wasn't expecting was Hermione to turn around grab his head and shoulders in her hands and pull him in for the most lip bruising, tongue dueling kiss of his life, he may not have been expecting it but he certainly wasn't complaining. Matching her boldness, his arms snaked around her pulling her close, one of his hands came to the middle of her back, moving slightly up and down her back, causing Hermione to arch her back to increase the contact. His second hand came to rest just above her bum, very daring for someone like him, his thumb and fingers found and began to caress the few inches of exposed skin that the tight jacket and short top didn't cover.
Smirking slightly at his befuddled, goofy, expression Hermione herself tried to keep the heat from her own face as she battled her raging teenage hormones. Slightly out of breath she said the first thing that came to her mind "Now can we go to the bookshop?"
Rags stared at Hermione; Hermione stared at Rags although it was he who broke first. A smile crept onto his lips before the two of them were roaring with laughter, clutching onto each other to keep themselves on their feet, so great was their mirth.
It was a very happy group of teenagers that met back up at the carriages to take them back to Hogwarts, the day that the four of them had spent in Hogsmeade was exactly what they had needed, it took their minds of past tragedies, painful memories, and of course the more mundane issues like studying and such, not that you would know from the amount of books that Rags was carrying with him, loaded into three separate bags were about ten different kinds of spell, and other wizarding books, only two of them were his.
--
Harry was annoyed; no better make that angry, no actually for the sake of all who were there's sanity Harry was pissed off. He and the rest of his year mates had just spent another delightful double period being insulted by the resident greasy bat, also known as Professor Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House. The lesson had been filled with snide remarks about Harry's parents, his friendships with muggleborns and those of 'questionable ancestry', and also his Quidditch skills.
Harry had no idea how a teacher, let alone a professor that was supposed to hold themselves to a higher ethical and moral standing than normal educators, was able to hold onto his position in a school where he constantly berated the people that were placed under his care.
Harry had gotten angry at the former Potions Professor and had fired back a stinging retort after one of the mans ever so thinly veiled innuendos about his parents, such a remark that had landed him in detention with the man, although he wasn't the only one that had a bone to pick with Snape.
Rags had very nearly blown his top too; he had managed to keep his temper around Snape when he made snide comments around Hermione when they had just been friends, but now that they were dating the big Norwegian took any insult to Hermione as a personal affront, much to Hermione's humor. She described it as 'chauvinistically romantic, in a very caveman kind of way', which only increased her humor in regards to him as Ginny was the one to explain what a chauvinist was, as Rags didn't have a complete understanding of the whole of the English language yet, as in this case some things still eluded him. The only reason that he hadn't beaten Snape into a bloody mess during this lesson is because Hermione restrained him, it was only a hand on his arm but it had been enough to stop him from having Dumbledore look for a new DADA Professor.
He thought back to the conversation that he'd had with his friend after the four of them had cone back from Hogsmeade. It was one of the more emotional talks of his life, and in Rags' life too. The pair of them had talked about their similar experiences, and had been able to garner a small amount of closure from talking to someone who'd had been through much the same thing, both had, had their lives torn apart by Lord Voldemort, both had struggled through hardships that no one of their age should have had to go through, and perhaps most importantly they had seen someone that they cared about killed before their eyes. What had been a shock was that towards the end of their little chat Rags had done something unexpected, he had become thoughtful before conjuring a group of glass vials with a flick of his wand, and pulling a few strands of memory from his head and placing then within said vials, he had said.
"Harry, if there is anyone that deserves to understand things about Riddle its you, so I have something that I want you to have" he had started calling his father by his last name, not that Harry could blame him. "In these vials are two distinct memories, the first is all my interactions with him, the second all my altercations and interactions with his Death Eaters, and lastly" he paused at this and Harry wondered what the hell he could showing him, "In the last one is what Hermione saw, I would like you and Ginny to see it, I…don't think that I could talk about it to you two in person."
In turn Harry had given Rags, once the older boy had showed him how to do it, all of his adventures over his previous five years at Hogwarts, including his more painful memories of watching Cedric Diggory get killed in his fourth year, coupled with the return of Voldemort, and watching Sirius fall through the veil in his previous year. Harry had spoken to Ginny, and they planned to look at the memories later that week end, the Headmaster already having given his permission to use his won pensive for the viewing.
Fortunately however the detention would not be that night, as Snape had said that he had too many papers that he needed to grade, so Harry's gathering would not have to be changed. As he walked through the halls of Hogwarts on his way to the Great Hall for lunch he thought about how mysterious Rags and Hermione had been for the last few days, they had come to Harry and Ginny with the suggestion that the four of them meet up in the Room of Requirement later this evening as there was an idea that they wanted to put to the group before any plans to get the DA off the ground were finalized.
Harry entered the Great Hall and looked around to see if his friends had made it down before him, he highly doubted it as Hermione had gone off to meet Ginny who was coming out of Charms at the same time the sixth years were coming out of DADA, and Rags had said that he wanted to go and check up on something before he went to lunch, he glanced around and didn't see them, he'd figured that he wouldn't seeing as they had gone to different parts of the castle and he had merely taken his time in getting to the Great Hall.
He saw Ron sitting by himself, not an uncommon site these days seeing as the rest of Gryffindor had shunned him after they had found out how he had been treating Rags and Hermione. Although that didn't stop the prat from trying to be Harry's bet friend when Rags and Hermione were not around, it was quite disturbing really, he seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with his actions, that Rags was a girlfriend stealing bastard and Hermione was just going through a phase, although whenever the big Norwegian was around he made himself scarce, so Harry assumed at least some of Rags' warning got through his skull, if the situation wasn't so annoying he would have found it quite humorous.
He sat down opposite Dean and Seamus who were, once again, talking about football while Neville sat there wondering how a 'red card' was supposed to work. Harry glanced up just in time to see Hermione and Ginny walk in through the doors of the Great Hall talking earnestly, this by itself was not uncommon, as it was well known that the two of them were the best of friends, but it was the look on Ginny's face that set Harry's teeth on edge, it was the look that she shared with her older brothers Fred and George, usually before somebody got pranked big time, or something expensive blew up.
The two girls sat down in front of Harry and carried on their conversation, with the occasional whisper driven glance and giggle in his direction, which he noted did absolutely nothing for his nerves, giggling girls could mean just about anything, but giggling, whispering girls usually meant trouble for just about any guy in the vicinity.
Harry glanced around, hoping that Rags would turn up, just so that if the girls were in fact planning something, he wouldn't be left to face it on his own. Harry did not think that this particularly train of thought was cowardly, surviving Voldemort five times kind of gives you a particularly strong survival instinct, a survival instinct that was telling him to be wary of, what appeared to be, two plotting girls sitting in front of him.
Eventually Rags showed up, he was looking through an exceptionally large Care of Magical Creatures book, a book that he had obviously only just gotten from the library, and was reading with almost the same enthusiasm that Hermione read a majority of her own text books.
Harry was just glad to have someone around so that if the girls tried to do something he wouldn't face it alone, or considering how big Rags was someone that he could effectively hide behind.
Rags sat down, almost absentmindedly, next to Harry and plated himself up some lunch, it did not take him long to notice the two whispering, giggling girls sitting opposite him and Harry, he turned to the latter and raised his eyebrow in question, wondering what was going on.
Harry just shook his head and with a slight smile told Rags, not with words but with his gestures, that he really didn't want to know what was going on. Instead he turned slightly and engaged his friend, in their own conversation.
"Ready for the Quidditch match Rags?" asked Harry, wondering what his friend was thinking in relation to the upcoming match against Slytherin, and to see if he was nervous about going into his first game.
Rags smiled a little nervously and said "Honestly the more that I think about it, the worse I feel" his smile became a little more natural as Harry and Ginny, who had broken off her conversation with Hermione at the mention of the word Quidditch, burst into laughter at the mention of how nervous he was. Here was the son of the most powerful Dark Lord in centuries, and was subconsciously in possession of all his magical knowledge, even if he couldn't use it at will, knew more spells than most of the seven year combined, and he was scared of playing a simple game of Quidditch.
Harry got control of his laughter, remembering how terrified he had been when he had played his first game back in his first year and said "Its ok Rags just play like we have been practising and you will do fine."
Grinning in response to Harry's words the pair let the girls go back to their own conversation and returned to their lunch, after all food was an important commodity to each of them, for different reasons, but the two of them valued the great variety of delicious food that was offered at Hogwarts, especially considering their upbringing.
--
Harry groaned and flopped quite unceremoniously into his favourite arm chair by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, the meeting with Rags had not gone as he had expected. Sure he had gone in there expecting to be surprised, but not to the extent that he saw Rags dancing, there was no way that the kind of swordplay that he was using could be anything other than a kind of dance, it was to graceful, and this is completely ignoring the devastatingly powerful spells that he had been using.
The conversation after his 'demonstration' as he called it had made something's very clear to both Harry and Ginny, they had known that Hermione was being taught something by Rags, but they thought it might have been some spells and maybe a little bit of self defence, not advanced magical swordplay, a style of fighting that Rags immediately offered to tutor both Harry and Ginny in as well. It seemed that he had remembered the conversation that he'd had with Harry in the Room of Requirement when Harry had said that he wasn't going to repeat the mistakes that he had made the previous year, when he had rushed to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius, with the end result being his Godfather's untimely death.
Although Ginny had been able to convince Harry that he was not to blame for the incident, and that the blame lied solely on the shoulders of Lord Voldemort, but this fact did not stop a tear being brought to Harry's eyes at the memory of what he had lost. His vow remained though; no longer would he battle Death Eaters with stunning spells and jelly leg jinxes, he needed to be faster, stronger, harder than he was before, and that was why he sought out Rags.
Ginny came in through the portrait hole, didn't even glance at anyone in the Common Room, which was good considering that Harry was the only one that was there, it being late enough that even the most die hard Gryffindor night owls had headed for their beds.
She flopped down on top of Harry, who didn't even make a sound at the unexpected presence on his lap so great was his fatigue at what he had been through that night, he was in pretty good shape, Oliver Wood had seen to that, but if Oliver ever went head to head with Rags in an exercise ring Harry thought that the big Norwegian would leave the fitness obsessed former Quidditch Captain lying in the dust without breaking a sweat.
He managed to force himself to wrap his arms around Ginny's slim figure as she tiredly snuggled back into his warm embrace, it was times like this that he didn't know what he would do if she wasn't in his life, she was one of the very few people in his life that were the reason that he kept on fighting this fight, for her he would face all odds. Harry knew that he had to tell Ginny exactly how he felt abut her, but he wasn't sure how to do it, he would try to speak to her tomorrow.
He glanced up and saw a rather out of breath, not to mention irate, Hermione Granger come tumbling through the portrait, making enough noise to warrant the tired Ginny to raise her head to see what was going on, seeing how Hermione looked she wriggled around on Harry's lap so that she could see her friend properly, having Harry's arms around her waist with his hands resting on her stomach had nothing to do with her decision.
"What's up Hermione? You look a little….miffed" asked Harry in a tone that spoke of his immense hope that he wasn't going to get a bollocking from his near-sister.
"Stupid, noble, self sacrificing, long haired….." muttered Hermione as she plonked herself down on the couch opposite the cuddling couple and crossed her arms crossly earning a raised eyebrow from Harry and a confused look from Ginny, who pointed up at Harry, as the descriptions, aside from the hair, described Harry to the T.
Hermione shook her head at her friends obvious question "no I'm not talking about Harry, I'm talking about Rags. We were walking back from the Room of Requirement, not long after you two had left" they had decided that they would never leave as a group, made it harder to be discovered that way.
"Well as we were coming down the seventh floor corridor that devil cat of Filch's came round the corner and started raising up a ruckus, I never knew a cat could make so much noise. Naturally Rags and I took off in the opposite direction; he used that 'Shading Stride' of his, dragging me along at the same time, we soon got away from the cat and what does he do. Consult me on what to do? No. He puts me in a broom cupboard and takes off as fast as he can, making as much noise as he can to draw Filch and his cat towards him and away from me."
Her triad over Hermione sat there with her arms crossed, face cross and her lips pouting. Harry, wisely, decided to keep out of this particular conversation and let his girlfriend handle it from here on in.
"So Hermione let me get this straight. You and Rags left after Harry and me?" head nod "You ran into Mrs Norris and Rags dragged you away and put you in a broom cupboard?" another head nod "He then distracted said cat and most probably Filch too, then you ran back here when the coast was clear?" final head nod.
Hermione was too busy pouting to notice the devilish smirk that had appeared on Ginny's face before she said "So what you're really annoyed about is the fact that Rags threw you into a broom cupboard and didn't join you?"
"Yes that's it exactly…wait what?" as soon as she realised what her friend ahd said a blush appeared on her cheeks, that to Harry the Common Room appeared to get a little brighter.
This blush had the side effect of both Harry and Ginny burst out laughing, which they were still doing when a very out of breath Rags came dashing through the portrait hole and leant against the wall catching his breath. He took in his two laughing friends and his scarlet faced girlfriend and shook his head in a classic 'I don't know what just happened and I don't want to know' fashion.
As he flopped down on the couch next to Hermione he heard her say, in a rather acidic voice, "And where have you been?"
She sounded pissed so Rags decided that he would do what men have done for countless generations when faced with the wrath of a significant other, he answered her questions as precisely, and as fast as possible.
"Well after I put you in the cupboard, which I will add in my defence was only to through that damned cat off our scent, I legged it all the way down to the entrance to the dungeons, took me long enough but I managed to lock the mangy beast in one of Snape's former Potions dungeons. Hopefully she'll choke on something poisonous or sharp and we could be done from the menace of the demon cat for the rest of our time here."
Throughout his whole speech Hermione had gradually gotten over her embarrassment, although her cheeks were still a little pink at the thought of Rags joining her in a broom cupboard. Not that she was adverse to the idea, in fact if he continued being the kind of boyfriend that he was she would consider taking him to one in the near future, very near future.
She was drawn from her musings at Harry and Ginny's laughter; the two of them were barely containing themselves at the thought of an irate Mrs Norris being locked in one of the potion rooms deep in the bowls of Hogwarts castle. Also the idea of Snape, even though he had taken up his coveted Defence against the Dark Arts post, still spent a lot of time holed up in his beloved dungeons, coming in and finding all of his ingredients and potions spread all over the floor, and most likely coating a soon to be very unlucky cat.
Even though she was firmly against any form of cruelty, be it to human, house elf or animal, Hermione found the idea of the hated feline locked in Snape's potion room quite funny, evidently Rags did too as soon all four of them were laughing like maniacs, not that this was all that unusual for students at Hogwarts.
--
There conversation continued on for far longer than any of them would have guessed, none of them paying attention to the time. But soon, as is the case with almost any small group that sit up late into the night, two of the group began to feel themselves succumb to the dark allure of sleep, so with this in mind Harry and Ginny made their goodbyes to Rags and Hermione, easily the two night owls in the group, Hermione because no matter the time she was able to study any course from any book, even if sometimes she had to rely on the help of coffee. Rags because he tried his best not to sleep, his memories and nightmares overwhelming even his considerable courage, something that his friends, while they might not agree with him, would not begrudge him, especially Harry who knew first hand how painful dreams could be.
Hermione and Rags shared a smile as they watched Harry help Ginny up and gave her a kiss goodnight before heading up to the boys dorms, but what made them smile was that the kiss would be more likely to keep the two participants awake, rather then encourage them to sleep.
Hermione looked over at Rags and saw, to her surprise, the he was rubbing his forehead slightly, almost as if he was in pain. She scooted closer to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, are you alright?" her voice was soft and dull of concern, she hadn't seen Rags in pain, outside of his memories of course, and the experience was not something that she really wanted to repeat.
"No but I will be" came his response, sighing he looked up into her concerned gaze and said "you know about the potions that I take to keep myself awake don't you?" At her affirmative nod he continued "Well after taking them for so long the body, it doesn't become dependent on them, wizards and witches solved that problem a long time ago, but it creates something similar to spell backlash."
Hermione nodded her head again, not completely understanding where he was going with his explanation, but having a rough idea herself as she understood what spell backlash was. "Go on" she said, still keeping her hand on his shoulder, determined to provide what comfort she could.
"For such a long period of almost constant exposure to a potion, in this case a pepper up potion, and its subsequent build up of backlash, the person that is taking the potion must stop for around two days. This is when the backlash kicks in. According to Madame Pomfrey it varies from person to person, mine manifests itself as severe headaches. I've dealt with worse, but it doesn't stop them from being painful, something that Madame Pomfrey has said to me on more than one occasion."
Hermione raised her eyebrow indicating that she wanted him to explain what he meant, although he knew her well enough to know that she would have wanted to know without her having to raise her eyebrow to indicate her wishes.
With a small self depreciating smile he continued "The school matron is not overly fond of my reliance on potions, but she does understand the need for them, although this does not stop her from telling me that I should try to sleep anyway and face my nightmares which doesn't do her any good at all as I just ignore it. But she gets her revenge in the form of my headaches, she can't give me anything for them the backlash negates that, so my options are either deal with it and suffer, or sleep and suffer."
Hermione smiled sadly, 'He can't even try to go to sleep his memories are that bad, and the only remedy that he has for it is only a temporary measure' she thought to herself, when an idea sparked by one of her own memories came to her.
"Hey come here" Hermione said as she moved a little further away towards the far end of the couch, indicating for Rags to do something similar. He had a slightly confused expression on his face but allowed himself to be guided down so that his feet and some parts of his legs were hanging over the far arm of the couch and his head was resting in Hermione's lap.
"Hermione what are you doing?" his question trailed off at the end as he relaxed into her lap, which was mainly due to her running her fingers through his long bronze coloured hair, lightly massaging his scalp.
Hermione grinned down at the obviously relaxed and happy young man who was lying in her lap, "My mum used to do this when I was little, not matter what was wrong with me, fever, a common cold, or even if I got scared by thunderstorms" her tone changed slightly as she finished speaking, almost as though there was a secret meaning behind her mention of thunderstorms. But this didn't stop her from noticing slight pained filled flicker that crossed his eyes at the mention of her having a 'mum', but it was gone long before she could mention it.
She watched as Rag's eyes closed as he relaxed into her touch, after a moment she let her fingers slowly creep down to touch the long scar that descended over his right eye. She hadn't really touched his face since she had sat with him in the Hospital Wing after he had saved her from Malfoy's curse, as Hermione's hand reached the bottom of the scar Rags' eyes blinked open and her deep, beautiful brown eyes met his steely blue-grey ones.
"I'll stop if it's bothering you" Hermione said, her voice barely above a whisper with her eyes never once leaving his, unconsciously leaning down slightly.
"No" came the whispered return "please don't stop, it's very comforting, and I don't think I've been this relaxed for a very long time."
Rags too found himself, leaning up until his lips met Hermione's, the kiss wasn't passionate or needy it was gentle and full of feeling. The kiss continued as eyes fluttered closed as hands slowly around the back of each other's heads as the kiss deepened, for the young couple a few minutes stretched into eternity.
When the kiss ended Hermione smiled at the young man whose head was resting in her lap and, once again, ran her fingers gently through his hair again, causing a small smile to cross his features.
"You really like my hair don't you?" he said softly, not wanting to break the intimately comforting atmosphere that penetrated the Common Room.
"I'm sorry, I won't do it again" said Hermione, a pink tinge tainting her cheeks, she removed her hand as he shook his head, and the fact he was still smiling caused her no small amount of confusion.
He raised his head slightly, and smirked at the look on Hermione's face as she though he was getting up, but instead he reached around and pulled the silvery clasp that held his hair, putting the clasp in his pocket he flicked his head a little bit so his bronze hair was out of the way when he returned his head to Hermione's lap.
Smirking up at her, he indicated his hair with a flick of his eyes and said "Well there you go, enjoy" his smile only got wider as he felt her gently hands and fingers resume their gently massage of his scalp, only this time they continued on outward gently pulling his hair.
She noticed that his eyes were beginning to close, so she gently kept up her administrations, hoping to relax him further towards sleep, he had told her about the nightmares that plagued his dreams whenever he tried to sleep, but Hermione hoped that by staying with him she would e able to provide him with some form of comfort should his sleep be troubled.
Hermione understood that this was taking their relationship to a new level, new territory that was unknown to the both of them. But she knew what her heart was telling her and, suspected what Rags himself felt so she felt justified in what she was doing.
Rags knew that he was about to fall asleep, and as such every shred of instinct in his body was screaming at him to fight of the approaching darkness of sleep, but something small inside him said to give into it, to trust that the person who was so tenderly stroking his hair and brow now would protect him from anything that his subconscious could conjure.
Slowly his eyes closed and his breathing deepened as he drifted off, before his conscious thought left him, he realised that the hands never stopped, and he noticed that the constant irrational fear that usually accompanied him when her sojourned into the realm of Orpheus was not present, that the soothing presence had 'cleansed' him of it, the last of his great revelations was a question that he asked himself when he examined the gentle warmth not only from Hermione's presence but was also emanating from him was 'Is this what love it like…?'
Hermione saw Rags finally fall asleep, so she leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against his forehead and whispered "Sleep Rags, let me be here for you for a change, I'll protect you."
With that she pulled the blanket off the sofa behind them and draped it over his sleeping form, tucking the edges around her legs to keep herself warm and settled down for a night of silent vigil over the sleeping form of the young man who had swept his way into her heart.
A/N: LONG, bloody hell that took me a long time, sorry about that folks. And yes before anyone starts on at me, yes I know the story has been moving a little slow, but I'll let you in on a secret, after X-Mass this will change dramatically, thanks again to everyone who reviewed, keep doing it and I'll keep posting.
Oh anyone want to submit an Idea on what direction they want the story to go, please feel free to let me know via review, also let me know if there are more character interactions that you want to see, like in the next chapter Voldie makes and appearance, and perhaps the prophecy will be revealed, duh duh duh. Ok Cheers everyone TBK