Chocolate Frog Card: (Bonus) Puis Thicknesse: Challenge: Write about the effects of the Imperius Curse.

Gringotts: Hermione/Anthony [Hermione - Pairings]

Ultimate Hermione Pairing Challenge: Hermione/Anthony Goldstein

February Event: 1. a first date (action) [10 points]

Word Count: 620

"I'm so glad you agreed to go out with me, Hermione," Anthony said once they'd sat down at the table and the waiter had taken their drink orders. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment."

"I agree," Hermione replied. "I don't know how I never noticed you in a romantic light before the other day. It's like I've been living in a bubble, and the bubble popped the moment I met you and now I can finally see!"

Anthony smiled happily.

"I want to make you happy," she added after they'd both perused the menu and decided what they wanted to eat. "Is that bad? Should I not be telling you this?"

"Please," he asked her, "Carry on. Tell me anything and everything. I don't want you to hide anything from me."

She smiled, her eyes slightly glazed and her smile appearing slightly airy but she was smiling at him and it didn't matter.

"It's like you're the only thing that matters to me," she told him. "Like, I'm a puppet and you're the puppet master. I'm a slave to make you happy."

He reached across the table and grasped her hand.

"You, being here with me, makes me happy," he admitted. "I don't want anything else. Nothing but you."

"It's like you put a spell on me," she confessed, giggling slightly. "You've entranced me."

"I love you," Hermione breathed against Anthony's lips, six months later. She'd lost contact with Ron and Harry after an argument about Anthony and she barely missed them.

It was okay, because she had Anthony and he was all she wanted, all she needed.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, leaning down beside his best friend as she woke with a groan. "Are you okay?"

"Ron?" she mumbled, rubbing her head. "What happened?"

He exchanged a look with Harry who had joined their side.

"What do you remember?" Harry asked.

"I remember answering the door when I returned home from work but that's it. Did I fall and hit my head? Is that why you're panicked?"

"Oh, Hermione," Ron breathed, almost sobbing. "We're really bad friends," he confessed. "We should've known."

"Known?" she asked. "Known what?"

He didn't answer as there was a commotion in one of the other rooms and she watched as Anthony Goldstein was dragged past with two Aurors.

"Hermione!" he shouted. "Sweetheart, tell them this is all a misunderstanding."

"Anthony?" she asked, rubbing her head as more pain erupted. "What are you doing here?"

His face fell but he didn't stop fighting. "Hermione, come on love, don't you remember? We've been dating for a year now. Surely you remember."

She shook her head, tears leaking from her eyes.

"You said you loved me!" he shouted. "You wanted me from our first date and I love you. I've loved you for years, how can you not remember me?"

"Anthony Goldstein," Harry interrupted. "You are under arrest for the use of an Unforgiveable. You have the right to remain silent, anything you do say can and will be used against you."

"Unforgiveable?" Hermione breathed, eyes wide and face pale. "Somebody tell me what happened. Now!"

"Hermione," Ron started. "Anthony started dating you a year ago with the use of the Imperius Curse. That's why you're head hurts and you can't remember anything.

"A year?" she asked, shocked. "The effects of being under that long could've been-"

"Damaging," Ron interjected. "We know," he said grimly. "You're safe now, though. We got you." He pulled her into his arms for a hug but Hermione's eyes were on Anthony's.

"I love you," he called to her. The devotion on his face and in his voice was enough to make her sick and she turned away.