Chapter 18
After the ball, Luna felt very satisfied with what she had already accomplished.
She had done everything she was supposed to up to this point with time to spare. No doubt Harry and Hermione were right now fulfilling the last thing she'd wanted to see happen: making out.
If only she could have watched them without getting caught, it would have been highly enjoyable.
She had however been worried that she wouldn't be able to get everything done in time or not have them go the way shed wanted them to, but it had all worked out.
Instead of the Yule Ball being where she had to frantically play catch up and manipulate everything in ridiculous ways, she was able to merely sit back and enjoy herself, which was quite a treat.
There had been no fights with girls or jealous guys, no one turning into blueberries, no dragons swooping in and literally crashing the party.
It was admittedly a pity that the troupe of monkeys could not come, but that would have only led to one very angry circus showing up.
Ultimately none of that had happened as it could have ended up, and it had been just a pleasant evening dancing and having fun watching the fruits of her labors: viewing Harry interact with the many girls that may or may not be part of the harem.
That was still unclear to her just who would ultimately end up in it or not. That was the difference between simply seeing the future and manipulating it: when you manipulated the future it could easily change and what she saw of the future was never perfect.
By now however, she'd done enough to feel like a harem future was already the probable future and not just a possibility, but exactly what kind of future or what size of a harem that would be was still unclear.
Padma, Daphne, Hermione, and of course herself being in it were almost for sure going to be in it, that she had seen clearly with an undeviating course, but she wasn't so sure about the other girls. Other girls such as Fleur or Pansy were quite likely, but things could still end up changing in that regard.
From now on however she'd decided to step back a bit, no longer needing to manipulate things so much as Harry was unknowingly on a path to do most of the work himself without much guidance.
From what she knew of the future and Harry admitting his plan himself, he was going to continue to date around but also strengthen the relationships he already had and unknowingly decide for himself who he wanted in his harem.
She trusted him to make good choices...fun choices of course. If not well...she'd just have to make them fun...like Hermione for example.
Even though she had had no part in ensuring that Hermione got fun lessons...it was quite possibly one of the best things ever.
Hermione was going to be so much fun! Luna thought, much better than her previous boring old self.
Harry was going to love her forever once the twins were done with her and so would everyone else.
Still thinking about the night's events, she finally decided to go to bed, already tired from the night's frantic dancing.
As she entered her currently dark room (her roommates had left over the Christmas break so she was the only one there) and turned on a light, she was momentarily surprised to see Gabrielle currently sitting on her bed.
"Hello, Luna," Gabrielle greeted, "have fun at the Ball?"
"I sure did!" Luna said excitedly, happy to see her best friend, "you want to hear about it?"
"Actually I kind of want to know how you did it," Gabrielle confessed, "how you managed to get him to go with you and those other girls?"
Luna grinned and said, "it's kind of a long story."
"I couldn't go to the Ball but I still managed to watch Harry go in with all of you," Gabrielle informed her, "if I didn't know any better I would have just said he was lucky going with all 4 of you, but I do know better."
"Well he is lucky," Luna pointed out, "he has me of course!"
Gabrielle couldn't help but smile as she admitted, "all right, well I suppose that's true. Anyone would be lucky to have you… I'm lucky to have you too, as a friend of course, we are still best friends right?"
"Of course," Luna said easily, "you're the bustiest best friend ever!"
"No you are," Gabrielle replied as she usually did when paid a compliment by her.
Luna admitted fairly, "only if the booby fairy visits me enough."
"Well breast size aside, I'm glad we're still friends...in spite of my misgivings about what you've been doing," Gabrielle admitted, "I've been watching you closely you know."
"What did you find out?" She wanted to know.
"That's just it, I can't tell that you really did anything," Gabrielle confessed, "the only thing I can really guess at was that you somehow changed the order form that Harry sent so the girls would get better gifts."
"Don't worry I used my own money for that," Luna told her, "do you want to know the secret to what I've been doing?"
She was actually quite happy to do this, being able to share super special secrets with her best friend.
Luna confided, "Actually all I did was send lots of mail to people. That's it, the rest was just everyone behaving the way I knew they would."
"That's it?" Gabrielle asked skeptically, "here I was thinking you were run ragged running around all over the place."
"No, I'm just tired from dancing all night," Luna confessed, "even my boobies are tired."
"Well sit down then," Gabrielle suggested as she patted a spot on the bed next to her for Luna to sit down.
"Thank you," She answered as she sat next to her, both eager to get off her feet and also tell her best friend all of her wonderfully done plan.
"It began with Harry outside in the snow after his date with Daphne, trying to figure out what to do," Luna began, "I sent a letter with one of the school owl's at the exact same time that Fleur also happened to glance up into the sky and see it. Both of them were reminded of their own owls and so headed over there where they met.
Your sister Fleur then told him exactly what he needed to hear and encouraged him to casually date around.
She also took the liberty of inviting him to her party, and you should already know why that was important."
Gabrielle smiled and said, "Yes, I think I do. I'm still not really sure about you involving my sister, but so far it hasn't seemed to have caused her any harm, and I really did like that date with Harry."
"Oh I knew you would," Luna agreed, "dating Harry is better than candy."
"That's blasphemy!" Gabrielle insisted, "nothing is better than candy."
Nothing was better than candy...except Harry sexy time of course.
"Fortunately I can have both," Luna pointed out as she reached underneath and pulled out some suckers and handed her one before taking one for herself.
"Of course, the letter I sent with the school owl wasn't just sent randomly," Luna explained, "I made sure that Padma's mother got it, explaining that I was one of Padma's friends, which was true enough.
I just mentioned to her that Padma was now dating Harry, and so it prompted her to write a letter about good dating principles. Padma fortunately listened and when Harry came to talk to her, with Harry already having learned much of that stuff from Fleur, they both were able to mutually agree not to be exclusive. That opened the door for Harry to be friends with and casually date many different girls."
"Like my sister," Gabrielle observed.
"Only if she and Harry want to," Luna insisted as she gave another lick of her cherry sucker, "just because I see them together in the future doesn't mean they don't have their agency."
"It appears you've already learned something," Gabrielle commented wisely.
"Yeah, suckers are really good," Luna stated as she took another lick... but she knew what she meant.
Her talk with Gabrielle earlier about her manipulations had caused a bit of a change: while she would still try to steer things in the right direction, she'd still try and give Harry and the girls their agency to decide.
Gabrielle for example. While very hard as she definitely wanted her to be in the harem, she respected her best friend enough to accept that if she didn't want to, then she wouldn't push her.
Even if she still held out hope that it might happen anyway of course.
She'd have to wait for things to play out and wait for her timeline to stop being so stubborn so she could find out.
Most of the time all she could get it to do was tell her almost pointless information such as what would be for lunch in the Great Hall the next day.
Unfortunately it was brussel sprouts much to her dismay.
The good news was she had finally managed to get it to start making cookies with the fortunes it made.
"Anyway," Luna continued, "another important letter I sent was to Daphne's grandmother saying that what Daphne wanted for Christmas was a Dungeons and Dragons game."
"Ooh, I love that game," Gabrielle agreed happily, having played it with Luna many times.
"It's actually a lot more fun with more people, I'll have to make sure you play it with us sometime," Luna commented.
"Only if I get to be a dragon," Gabrielle insisted.
"Naturally," Luna agreed, "which means I get to be the giant."
It wasn't part of the rules, but who cares?
"Why Dungeons and Dragons?" Her young veela friend asked.
"Playing it seems to help even the most anti-social of people make friends by playing it with other anti-socials, I figured it could definitely work for us," Luna claimed, "it's only the best game ever!"
"What about Unicorn Racing? Or Ghostbusters? Or Candy Crush?" Gabrielle pointed out, listing off games they had invented and/or played.
"All right, then somewhere in the top 100," Luna suggested, "anyway it did it's job and it made us all friends."
Gabrielle then looked somewhat worried as she asked, "you aren't going to forget about me now that you have other friends?"
"Of course not," Luna insisted as she but an arm around her first real friend, causing Gabrielle to do the same for her.
Gabrielle had been the first person that she could truly be herself with and that meant a lot to her.
"Thanks Luna," Gabrielle said gratefully, "so what about that girl Pansy that Harry went on a date with last night? She's never seemed very nice, why get her a date with Harry?"
"Since she actually isn't all that mean, she just needed to get away from the Devil," Luna claimed.
Gabrielle looked surprised as she asked, "Are you trying to say she was possessed or something?"
"No, I was talking about her ex-boyfriend," Luna observed, "she's just been influenced for too long by him and him constantly putting her down making her feel like she's worthless. I just appealed to Draco's vanity by sending him a letter supposedly from Fleur, saying she wanted to do him."
"What kind of idiot would be stupid enough to fall for that?" Gabrielle exclaimed, "my sister is definitely not that easy!"
"We're talking about Malfoy here," Luna pointed out, "he actually tried to make a move on your sister and she slapped him."
"Oh, why didn't she tell me about that?" Gabrielle whined, "I would have loved to at least hear about it."
"Since you would have gone and beaten him up," Luna reminded her.
"True," Gabrielle was forced to agree.
"Don't worry, the Weasley twins were watching and decided to constantly prank him," Luna admitted, "eventually I'm hoping he'll just give up, drop out of school and then have his parents end up sending him to a magical military school where he should straighten up. Right now however he's just a glutton for punishment. The good thing however is he broke up with Pansy before he did it, figuring Fleur was so much better...which caused Pansy to run into Harry and for her to get invited to the party. I wrote a letter addressed to her claiming to be from Harry asking her out on a date and knowing that Harry would run into her around that time. He was bound to after I brought up a conversation about girl's periods, forcing him to leave."
"You didn't," Gabrielle exclaimed as she laughed.
"Well the date went well anyway," Luna pointed out, "he's also going to ask her out again."
"Do you know if he's going to ask me or Fleur out again?" Gabrielle asked.
"I can arrange it if you'd like," Luna offered.
She was more than happy to make sure that Gabby got some Harry time...maybe she might want to be in the harem then.
Gabrielle thought about it for a moment, before saying: "Maybe. I know at least Fleur would like another date with him. She already said he was the best date she's ever had."
"Well just let me know," Luna commented.
She laid her head down then, now too tired to want to talk much more.
"Luna?" Gabrielle pressed, "what are you going to do next?"
She yawned and then said, "Nothing. I'm going to sleep for awhile. I'm tired."
"I meant about the plan, what are you going to do next?" Gabrielle inquired.
"I just told you, I'm going to rest for awhile," Luna said, now closing her eyes.
She grabbed her favorite teddy bear Titty and went instantly to sleep.
TOOMANYTOOMANYTOOMANY
One Month Later
Harry crawled desperately upon the narrow ledge he was on, his hand recently cut off, trying to escape from the evil Darth Vader currently standing over him.
"There is no escape," Darth Vader insisted, "don't make me force you to eat nothing but green vegetables for the rest of your life."
Harry crawled vainly trying to get out of Darth Vader's reach anyway.
"Join me and I will complete your training," Darth Vader offered.
"I'll never join you!" He insisted.
"You don't know the power of the Dark Side!" Darth Vader insisted, "Dumbledore never told you what happened to your mother."
"He told me enough," Harry argued, "he told me you killed her."
"No Harry," Darth Vader admitted, "I am your mother."
"That's impossible," He insisted.
"Okay, I was just kidding," Darth Vader replied.
"Hey hold on, you're not supposed to say that," Obi-wan argued as she came out.
"Where does that leave me?" Leia asked, "am I still your daughter Darth Vader?"
Darth Vader or rather Darth Luna admitted, "well that was until I realized that I couldn't marry Harry if I was his mother."
"It's just a game Luna," Leia or rather Padma pointed out, her hair currently done up into Leia like buns.
Of course it was just a game, one where they dressed up like Star Wars characters and acted out some of the scenes from the movies based upon their own recollections of what the characters said.
Evidently Star Wars was a movie even almost all wizards had seen.
"You couldn't marry him either since you'd be his sister," Daphne said, still arrayed in her stormtrooper costume.
"Fortunately I'm not in real life," Harry answered, "or that would have caused me quite a lot of problems growing up."
"I'd have totally ruined you," Padma observed.
"Some people used to think you thought of me as a sister," Hermione pointed out.
"Well either they have to figure we were committing incest by kissing each other or realize they were so very wrong," He claimed.
"So very wrong indeed," Hermione agreed with a smile.
"Let's all go sit down," Daphne suggested.
As he went to go do so, his mind wandered.
A lot had changed since the Yule Ball nearly a month ago.
First of all he'd gotten even more close to the girls he now considered to be very good friends.
The fact that they were all beautiful young women who really did not mind the occasional kiss was only an added bonus.
Hermione was now definitely a part of that group. It had taken a few conversations with her but she'd agreed to just remain from friends for now along with the other girls as long as he kissed her sometimes, something he was more than happy to do.
As for Hermione herself, she had changed in a lot of ways, all for the better even if there were a few surprises. Fred and George had been able to open her up, with her now more carefree and less worried over things. She even had a sense of humor now.
Possibly the most interesting change was Fred and George had convinced her to go into business with them, something he would have never dreamed of happening before, but it appeared to be a good fit.
He'd already seen some of the products they'd come out with or were working on and he was impressed, both now catering to the other as far as what products they would like to see developed.
In addition to joke products they were also producing much more practical items such as self-writing pens and they were even developing something that would grade your homework for you before you turned it in so you'd know what grade to expect on it.
That one would take quite a bit more work, but he could see it as being totally invaluable.
Some things did not change however, and he would have questioned if Hermione was being polyjuiced if she had: she still valued her schoolwork a great deal even if it had tapered off somewhat so she could apply the same type of passion and time to her business.
In all honesty he absolutely loved Hermione even more now.
She was nothing short of everything he loved about Hermione combined with everything she might have been lacking in. A smart, determined, loyal young woman who was also fun loving and incredibly sexy.
By the way, the way Hermione was now dressing, she looked just plain hot! Hot enough to sizzle any man's heart, including his own, not that she minded the attention especially from him.
She would catch him staring at her bum quite a bit, but would only wink at him playing quite the tease. Of course the other girls would occasionally pull much the same thing on him so he couldn't blame her if she noticed them doing so and decided to copy it.
The other girls were still pretty much the same however. Padma was still just as smart and kind, Daphne was just as unfiltered, Luna was just as crazy...and he wouldn't have them any other way.
Perhaps the only difference was how close they really had gotten. He was enjoying a level of closeness and mutual like for his friends that he had never enjoyed with Ron or even Hermione before. Not only did they spend a good amount of time playing, doing homework together, etc, but they also had very deep conversations sometimes...with quite a bit of humor and fun mixed in of course.
However close of friends they were becoming in only so short a period, there was no denying that he was attracted to each of them and they to him.
In order to take advantage of this he went on a one on one date with one of them every Friday.
Tonight's was with Hermione, officially his 3rd date with her if you counted the Yule Ball.
The second had just been to evaluate their relationship after having made out...well a lot after the Yule Ball.
By now they felt much more secure in their relationship.
However in addition to going on the monthly date with Padma, Daphne, Luna, and Hermione, he also tried to keep in contact with the other girls he had been on dates with by occasionally chatting with them just to see how they were doing or partnering up on a partner's assignment during classes.
Every Saturday in fact he went with one of them on another date if he had decided the first date was good enough to go on another one.
So far he'd been on ones with Fleur, Susan, Hannah, and Pansy. Tomorrow night he had one with Angelina, which should be really good
He'd had a great idea for that one and he couldn't wait to see her face when she saw what he had planned.
As if to prove he was indeed addicted to dating, every Sunday he dated a new girl he'd never dated before.
It wasn't like he didn't already have a large dating pool to choose from, it was just that there was something exciting about dating someone new. You just didn't know how it was going to turn out. A lot of girls could pleasantly surprise you and others...well they could certainly disappoint.
When it came to choosing a new girl, he followed "The List" as he thought of it: in short it was a list of girls that Lavender and Parvati had put together of girls who really, really wanted to go with him on a date and then vetted by Padma, Daphne, Luna, and Hermione who decided who they thought he would have the most fun with and who truly deserved to date him.
At first he'd just followed the list that Lavender had provided him and just figured that the girls who most wanted to go with him would be best: big mistake.
His first two dates with new girls had been with Ginny Weasley and Romilda Vane. Let's just say he'd rather forget them entirely. They were just plain awful as dates.
Ginny couldn't seem to manage to say two words to him all night long, and Romilda just couldn't seem to shut up, mainly with her gushing about how great she found him.
If he wanted that kind of praise he'd have started his own Harry Potter fan club. He'd already know where to find the first two members.
Finally he'd had to just tell Romilda to shut up, several times in fact. When she tried to kiss him, for the first time ever he'd declined a kiss, already majorly turned off to her.
It was at least better than with Ginny, who had ended up fainting more than once and he had ended up spending the rest of the night with her in the hospital wing with Madame Pomfrey.
Her prescription that she had secretly whispered to him: don't date her again.
So apparently Ginny was allergic to him in a way. No big deal, he'd faced worse. Usually during his low points when the school hated him (such as when they thought he was the heir of Slytherin) most people acted like they were allergic to him so in comparison it wouldn't be very hard.
Not dating her or Romilda again wouldn't be hard.
After her and Romilda, he'd relied on the girls to actually vett the dates on the list beforehand as together they seemed to know who wouldn't be too bad, and his last two dates had been much more pleasant.
They had first selected Megan Jones.
Fun girl, and very fun date. Too bad some other guy apparently thought so soon afterward because she now had a boyfriend.
Still he was happy for her.
Of course he realized he wasn't the only guy in the dating game and he wasn't so greedy to try to keep all the girls to himself, including his closest of friends.
After all if he was going to be allowed to date other girls, they should be allowed to date other guys as it was a two-way street.
Daphne had actually been asked by a 5th year Slytherin a couple of weeks ago, but evidently the date had gone horribly enough for her not to want to do that again anytime soon with anyone besides him.
Yet when it came to the girls, however, the one clearly getting the most attention was Hermione. She'd been asked out no less than 4 times after the Yule Ball, but she'd turned them all down.
When asked why, she would only say, "I only want Outstandings."
Whatever that meant.
Still he wasn't about to argue if the girls chose not to date other guys. While he promised himself he'd be supportive he liked being the only one in their "league" so to speak.
With such great girls to date, Fred and George had also asked him why he didn't just date them and forget other girls.
If he hadn't had an answer then, he certainly did after last week when he'd gone on a date with a new girl.
There was a charity program called Make a Witch, where children or teenagers with life threatening illnesses were given the opportunity to have their greatest wishes fulfilled.
They had contacted him and asked if it might be possible for him to help fulfill such a wish for a 12 year old girl who wanted to go on a date with him.
Evidently she had some sort of wizard disease he'd never heard of but that was slowly killing her.
Of course he'd accepted, how could he not?
She had ended up having a great time and admittedly so did he, feeling like he'd really made a difference in someone's life.
"Harry?" He heard someone say.
He was finally broken out of his long train of thought and turned towards who had spoken to him.
It was Padma.
"You've been staring at me for the last 10 minutes," She pointed out as she currently smiled, not at all bothered if he was.
He allowed himself to smile back and said, "What I can't stare at a beautiful girl for that long?"
"Just as long as you spread it around more," Daphne pointed out, "keep in mind there is other eye candy here for you to stare at."
"We have candy?" Luna asked hopefully.
"I'll give you something to stare at if you'd like Harry," Hermione offered with a seductive smile.
"No we don't have candy Luna," Padma answered, "and Hermione, if you bend down to pick up some trash you dropped on purpose just so that Harry will see your bum too many more times, you'll become a hunchback."
Hermione blushed a bit but then informed her, "actually that theory is incorrect, the amount of times I would have to..."
She stopped as all 3 girls were already pretending to be asleep.
"Wake me up when you get done with your long scientific stuff," Daphne asked.
"Hah hah, very funny," Hermione claimed, "it's not that boring, although I'm sure you'd feel a lot differently if I lectured you on how to kiss."
"I thought it was just nap time," Luna replied, "has anyone seen my teddy bear?"
"Titty?" Padma asked, referring to Luna's interestingly named teddy bear.
"No, Harry," Luna said as she crawled over to him and laid her head on his chest.
He wasn't sure he was the most comfortable pillow, he didn't argue either if she wanted to use him as one.
Finally he decided to just go with it as he ran his fingers through her hair as she tried to get some rest.
After a few minutes of silence, Padma then asked, "So who are you going with on Sunday Harry?"
"I thought we already agreed he was going with Tracey," Daphne claimed.
"We never agreed to that," Hermione argued, "what about Eloise?"
"Harry doesn't need to go on a charity date every week," Daphne pointed out.
"Eloise isn't a charity date, she's actually a very nice girl," Hermione answered.
"Who is also a total stick in the mud," Padma observed, "if he's going to go on a charity date he should just go with Professor McGonagall."
"She's a little old for him," Daphne commented.
"Oh no I actually rather dig older ladies old enough to be my grandma," Harry sarcastically said.
"That's just messed up Harry," Hermione answered.
"Hey maybe making out with her will help her loosen up a bit," Padma suggested, "it did wonders for you."
Hermione blushed but then replied, "Well in that case I think I need to be loosened up some more."
"Good thing we're going on a date tonight," He pointed out.
"Really?" Daphne asked, feigning surprise, "is that today? I had no idea."
Since Hermione had been talking about it all week, this was a complete lie, but Daphne was taking the opportunity to tease her.
"I think it would be more important for her and us to get a jumpstart on our homework," Padma claimed, also teasing her, "homework is far more important than dating."
Hermione only smiled and said, "Let's just say I finally sorted out my priorities."
What a fantastic and true statement. Ron had said it at the beginning of their first year.
Now she'd finally gotten around to doing it.
Thank goodness because he'd never have stood for having a date be cancelled because of homework.
"Well I've still got to go get ready for our date, and while I'm sure Harry would love to see me just go naked..." Hermione said, pausing to wink at him as she said the word naked, "I've got to go get dressed."
"Let me know if you need any help," He boldly offered.
"Careful, I just might," She teased him right back, "or help you if you need it."
He loved this playful sexual banter Hermione was now engaging in. The other girls did it too, but there was something still exciting about doing it with his previously much more reserved best friend.
Hermione got up to leave and he decided to go with her so he could get ready himself.
Once they were outside of the room, Hermione pointedly asked, "you did finish your homework already didn't you?"
"Would you cancel if you found out I hadn't?" He questioned.
"Maybe," She teasingly suggested.
"It's a good thing I already did it then," He replied, "I wasn't about to take the chance, although I was tempted not to do it so you'd do it for me so we'd still have time to make out."
"How desperate do you think I am?" Hermione she asked him.
He smiled and said, "desperate enough to do my homework for me."
"You want me just as much, if anything I should get you to do my homework," She suggested.
"First of all, would you really be able to trust me with your homework?" Harry pointed out, "and second of all, I do have other girls I could make out with you know."
"You'd still do my homework for me if that was the reward," Hermione argued.
He smiled and said, "For you, Hermione, I'd do your homework for a whole year."
"Let me guess, you're hoping I'll reciprocate by making the same offer to you," She observed.
"It was worth a shot," He admitted.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
It was fortunate that Hermione did not take long to get ready for their date.
His jealous roommates stared at him for much of the time that he was getting ready himself.
They had pressed him more than once over the last month about just how he was managing to get all the girls or as Seamus put it "all the pussy."
He'd tried to give them some good advice before but it didn't appear any of them had followed it.
Seamus for example could not seem to understand why his sexist jokes did not go over very well. Even Lavender had slapped him and left in a huff during their date at the Yule Ball.
He'd totally deserved it though.
When he got to the foot of the stairs to Hermione's dorm, he waited for a few minutes for her to come down.
He couldn't help but stare of course when she did.
Merlin she was hot!
Nor was he ever going to deny that fact ever again.
She was perfectly aware of what kind of effect she was having on him and once she'd gotten to the bottom of the stairs with him, she asked with a smile, "Do you need a minute to collect yourself Harry?"
"A minute?" He managed to stutter, "I'm going to need like an hour."
"Well if you need to study me some more please feel free," Hermione countered, "there might end up being a pop quiz later on just so you know."
"Good thing you're one of my favorite subjects," He answered.
"I'd say you're also a good test taker," She admitted.
He leaned in and kissed her before asking, "So?"
"I'd say that merits an Acceptable Mr. Potter," Hermione answered.
"Only an Acceptable?" Harry asked.
"Well you'll have all night to try and raise your grade," She pointed out.
He grinned and said, "I think I can try and work something out Professor Granger."
After taking her hand, they headed off on their date.
"So what are we going to be doing?" Hermione asked him, "unless you plan to just make out the entire time?"
He noted that from the sound of her voice, she would not be too upset about that idea at all.
"Unfortunately not," Harry admitted, "it probably would have been a good idea, but I don't think I should do that to Dobby."
"Dobby is going to be serving us on our date?" Hermione asked him in surprise.
Admittedly he was a bit worried. Hermione had tempered her SPEW thing a great deal, but she might not take too kindly to if he was forcing Dobby to work as his personal slave so often...especially when he was a free elf.
"Don't worry," He insisted, "I've actually been paying him, and he's surprisingly been taking not too terrible of wages."
She seemed pleased by that answer.
He led her inside the school library.
"We're having our date here?" Hermione asked him incredulously, "how did you manage to get Madame Pince to agree to that?"
"I have my ways," He tried to say mysteriously.
She looked a bit surprised as she asked, "Please tell me you didn't try to woo her or anything."
"NO!" He exclaimed in complete shock, "I would never stoop that low. I was talking about getting Filch to ask her out.
"I had no idea you and Filch were friends," Hermione argued, "what are you whispering dirty little secrets to each other over a mop bucket together or something?"
"Yes, because I like to spend my time cleaning the castle with Filch. We even call ourselves the Filth Brigade, you are free to join if you'd like?" Harry offered.
"I suppose I could, if only to preserve your sanity, it almost sounds like you're starring in a porn film with Filch," She pointed out.
He immediately pretended to vomit.
"That's disgusting," He answered.
"If I watched it I'd have to keep my eyes on you the entire time and not on Filch or I'd be throwing up too," Hermione answered.
"I think the real question is would you really watch it?" He pointedly asked her.
She mischieviously smiled and said, "If you were in it I would."
"You've become such a dirty girl," Harry argued.
"Good thing you're on the Filth Brigade," Hermione replied, "besides you love it when I talk a bit dirty."
"Yeah," He admitted, "well why don't I tell you about how I got Filch to ask out Madame Pince during dinner."
Well it does at least sound like a good story," Hermione observed.
He grinned and said, "well I know you love a good story."
She had no idea she'd unknowingly got the theme for the entire evening...a theme he was really hoping she would like.
He led her over to the table for two between two long bookshelves and then pulled her seat out for her so she could sit down.
"Dobby?" Harry then called.
The little elf immediately popped in and asked, "The Great Harry Potter is calling Dobby?"
"Yes," He admitted, "I do believe we're ready to eat now."
"Dobby will be getting the food," Dobby replied.
Without further ado, Dobby popped out again.
A minute later he reappeared with the food.
As her dinner was put down in front of her, she looked at it.
It was a square bread bowl with the words Hermione's Book spelled out in honey.
As she opened up the top of the bread bowl it unhinged and allowed her to see the soup inside.
"Alphabet soup?" She asked in surprise.
"I came up with the idea," Harry admitted, "I know how much you love books and so I'd made sure to make the whole date book themed. The food is book shaped with alphabet soup in it, we're inside the library, and you may not realize it from the tablecloth on it to avoid getting it dirty, but we're actually using a huge book as a table."
She checked underneath the tablecloth and sure enough, it was actually a book.
Thank you Magical World Map, he thought. It had been the only book he'd been able to find big enough for it to serve his purposes.
"I must say, you must have really put a lot of thought into this," Hermione admitted, sounding impressed.
"Thanks," He answered, "however there is still plenty more to come. First of all, you might want to try looking under your seat for another book in case you get bored."
"I'd say that's pretty unlikely," She observed, fixing her beautiful eyes right on his.
The rest of the date went great with him using various books as props.
The entertainment during dinner had been provided by a book that sung Opera and then afterwards had been a Shakespeare book that let you hear all of the characters actually speak instead of just reading it.
The Shakespeare story with the character Hermione in it of course.
All in all though, Hermione was seriously impressed just like he hoped.
"You've really gone all out haven't you?" She observed.
"You deserve it," He answered.
"Isn't this crazy?" Hermione asked him, "just how much things have changed between us in so short a time?"
"I've thought about that," He answered, "I suppose there has been a lot of changes, but I love them."
She took his hand and said while looking into his eyes: "I love them too, especially this one."
Hermione leaned in and kissed him and he began kissing her back.
Some changes were definitely better than others he thought.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it. I wanted Hermione to still be Hermione but have a much more loose personality in a lot of ways. In canon she really is unable to have that or be able to really enjoy herself quite a bit because of Ron and him negatively affecting Harry. I would never have chosen Hermione to end up with Ron, or really anyone I actually like in the books.
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