Unknown Quotients by evangeline

Rating: PG
Genres: Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 5
Published: 19/11/2003
Last Updated: 19/11/2003
Status: Completed

Hermione does something impulsive, Harry is startled and then smart, Gryffindor House
eavesdrops, Seamus is scared.




1. Unknown Quotients
--------------------

Sixth year. Hogwarts. Trying to get rid of writer's block on Music and Merlot, which
isn't as much fun now that they've hooked up, sort of. The solution? Write a hooking up
story. Duh. Be prepared for denial!Hermione and smug-ish!Harry. The title comes from a song by The
Shins. Which sounds silly. And it is. But, listen, I have to work this out, okay?

*wink*

It's finished. No beta,no sleep, please don't think this is appalling. I've adopted
things from both canon (some fifth year references) and fanon (prefects having separate bedrooms -
the best plot device ever) so bear with me. This is silly and clichŽd and warm and fuzzy-ish and
has a lot of ellipses. But this conversation can't go smoothly, obviously. Enough, though. Read
on. Reviews make me feel squish. *heart* you for reading.

***************************

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

Even Ron Weasley looked at his best friend a little askew as he held the quill aloft, dipping it
each time to make a dimple in the flesh of his other best friend's arm. Harry had been poking
Hermione, who was steadfastly ignoring him, for the better part of ten minutes. No one was sure
what had happened on that late spring Saturday morning, just that Hermione had come storming in
from outside the portrait, looked up at the stairs that led to the prefects' room as if
considering her options and then shook her head resolutely. Squaring her shoulders, she sat down at
a table and pursed her lips, then proceeded to bury her nose in a book. Which was nothing unusual
in itself. Today, though, she had gone through the whole process like a little hurricane, slamming
her books on the table until she found the right one. She had then chose to put several other books
in front of her, in case no one had come to the conclusion that she wanted to be left alone. Her
hair was even more askew than usual and she looked slightly flushed, as if she'd be running a
great distance.

Seamus had almost been challenged to a duel when he had walked over and gently removed the book
from her hand, almost dropping it when she reached for her wand, but then he saved his skin
(probably literally) by politely murmuring that she had the book upside down and setting it softly,
with no sudden movements, back in her hands. He got the desired reaction that she put her wand
down, but the rest of the baffled Gryffindors were treated to the sight of their normally very
composed prefect turning a deep scarlet. Parvati had looked stunned that her boyfriend could be so
deferential, but when she asked him about it, all she got was a choked murmur, the only parts of
which should could make out were "Hermione" "O.W.L.s" and "man-eating
plants". She vaguely remembered an incident at the end of fifth year and made a mental note to
ask Hermione how to conjure one of those up, just to have that little extra something on her side
when she needed her beloved boyfriend to shut up.

The play had gotten better from there, though, with the addition of their other prefect. (Ron
had decided to focus on Quidditch, which loosely meant that he hated being a prefect, what with
Hermione always trying to get him to help her with paperwork and whatnot. Besides, he discovered
that being out after hours just wasn't as much fun when you had a reason besides snogging.)
Harry had sauntered in, an unusual thing for the unassuming boy. Normally he walked, he strolled,
but this was a full-on Gilderoy Lockhart saunter. The second odd thing was the smile on his face,
which wasn't the usual reserved grin that was there. It was fifty thousand watts of pure charm.
Witch Weekly would've gone into double issues. They might still, thanks to Colin Creevey's
ever-present camera. He then proceeded to walk over to Hermione's table, eliciting winces from
the rest of the assembled students. Hermione may have loved Harry and Ron, but she was obviously in
a Mood. And when Hermione was in a Mood, they left her alone. The final act was yet to occur,
though.

Placing his hands in between her two stacks of books, he pushed them aside and leaned over the
table until he was at eye level with her angry eyes. "You can't leave it at that,
Hermione."

He waited a second for a response, and getting none except for the flick of her pupils back down
towards her book, proceeded to sit down and start poking her. The rest of the common room was
shocked. Parvati and Lavender could barely contain themselves. Even Ginny looked intrigued. First
Hermione comes in looking positively apocalyptic and then Harry strolls in looking for all the
world like a Niffler in Aladdin's cave and starts making cryptic comments. One after the other,
they had entered in the space of five minutes. It couldn't have had anything to do with Ron, he
had been here playing Exploding Snap with Dean. Unfortunately, that meant he wasn't good for
any information, which left all of them as they were now, poised and waiting. The lines had been
drawn. Harry was acting oddly sunny and, one had to admit, reckless and Hermione was in possibly
the worst mood anyone had seen her in - any minute now *something* interesting was bound to
happen.

When it did, no one could quite believe it. Hermione stood up abruptly, yanked the quill out of
Harry's frozen hand and snapped it in half, throwing the pieces at his head, unconcerned about
the ink that flew all over the two of them. Yes, the room seemed to agree, she'd reached her
threshold. Hermione's former roommates exchanged smug glances that spoke of a million chatty
little conversations they'd apparently had in anticipation of this eventuality. Hermione could
only go on like she did so long before she snapped. What Harry had done to drive her to the point
was a mystery, but they were sure they'd find out soon. Neville Longbottom, on the other hand,
had scuttled to the chair closest to the door when she had stood up so quickly. The rest of their
bored classmates had collectively looked elsewhere when it started but a casual observer could
practically see their ears perking up.

"Leave me alone! I already told you what you wanted to hear, do you want me to tell you
again? Color-coded notes, perhaps? Would you like a bloody diagram, Harry Potter?"
Hermione's voice was slightly hoarse, as if they'd been shouting earlier as well.

Harry simply smiled. "Not necessary, my dear Hermione. I was just wanting to continue the
discussion we were having earlier," here he stopped to look around and an entire room shuffled
their eyes elsewhere in a guilty fashion, "but somewhere a little more private."

"I don't have anything else to say." Hermione was back in her chair, perched
primly on the edge and obviously gritting her teeth. "If you'd please, I have some
studying to do."

"Well," Harry said in a thoughtful sort of tone, "I have some things I'd like
to discuss. I guess here is as good a place as any. If you'd like to start right after I got
off my broom when you were sitting by that tree, I can remind you where you were. . ." He
trailed off as Hermione stood up yet again.

"Fine." Casting a dark look around the room, she started towards the stairs. "My
room. I'll take down the wards and you can come up." She sneered at him in a very
un-Hermione fashion as she swept up her books.

With that she turned around and stomped up the stairs that led to the dormitories and the
prefects' rooms that were situated amongst them, Harry beaming strangely at her retreating
back. A moment later they heard the door slamming. Which was apparently Harry's cue to drag Ron
into the corner, where there was a whispered consultation. There was a lot of sound from the
rustling of papers as everyone tried to pretend that they had reached some crucial point in their
studying and were, as such, not paying attention. They were thrilled to discover that Ron
wasn't doing much talking, but Harry was.

". . .tree, after I was just doing some flying. . .what happened last year. . .tried to
tell. . .no, no, she's going to be fine with it." There was a pause, and then Harry
continued. ". . .true. . .she will be. . .talk to her. . .you'll see."

Ron's voice was unusually clear in the room's silence. "Well, mate, what are you
waiting for?"

With that, Harry raised both fists in a victor's salute and walked towards the stairs,
leaving a grinning Ron in his wake and the rest of the room shocked at Harry's shockingly out
of character behavior. Where was their unassuming hero? They looked to Ron for answers and as soon
as Harry reached the top stair, Ron nonchalantly walked over to Lavender and sat down beside
her.

"Remember that thing we were talking about, love," he smirked "with Harry? I
think it's about to be sorted out."

"With Harry? The only thing we've discussed is the fact that he needs a. . ." she
paused, seemingly shocked and then suddenly turned back towards Parvati. "Parvati. Something
huge is about to happen. Right now. Ron, Ron, we have to know what's happening! This is vital
to Gryffindor! Oh, my god," she breathed, "Harry and Hermione are about to. .
.they're going to. . .wow. . ." And she sat back, apparently too stunned to continue.

The rest of the common room was vaguely boggling, having gathered enough information to piece
together what was happening. Hermione had always seemed too wrapped in books to care about boys
that way, even if it was Harry. And Harry, let's face it, had always been too wrapped up in
saving the world. On the other hand, the two accompanied the other doing both things, so maybe it
wasn't so inconceivable. But. . .Harry and Hermione? Together? As one, the classmates sat
there, mulling the thought over.

Ginny Weasley was the first to react and that was to pull a small ear shaped object out of her
pocket. While some of the room looked bewildered, she gave a rakish grin and moved her wrist back
to flick the object across the room and upwards just as Ron started to protest.

"Oi, Gin, let the boy do this on his. . ." And then his words died off as the sound
came in from the room above. Apparently Hermione had forgotten to reset her wards, one of which was
a silencing charm that prevented sound from escaping and thus allowing her to have private prefect
type conversations or, in the case of not setting them, providing the rest of Gryffindor the
perfect opportunity to eavesdrop on this momentous occasion. Those that protested at the ethical
ramifications of this invasion were quickly silenced, both by magic and a few well-thrown pillows.
It wasn't often that Hermione forgot something like that and her well-meaning friends
weren't about to let that opportunity slip by. Certainly not at this point.

". . .can't be distracted," Hermione was saying, "by things like that. I
don't want you to get hurt because of me."

"But, Hermione, you've been my best friend for years. You were the one who didn't
let me push you away last year and then talked me through. . .that. . ." There was a pause and
then Harry's voice, sounding both offhanded and slightly more vulnerable. "You understand
me, you know. I feel like I can tell you anything. You and Ron got me this far." Another few
beats of silence. "You two are like pieces of me. Ron is my brother in the most important way,
but you are certainly not my sister."

"See, Harry, that's all, you're getting confused. It's. . .it's hormones!
That's all." Hermione's voice had a desperate tinge to it.

"Then why, if I'm confused," Harry started, sounding slightly amused, "did
you kiss me first?"

There was a minute of silence while Hermione formulated an answer, which gave the rest of the
common room to give a communal start. Hermione had kissed Harry? Just like that?

"I. . .I don't know. It was the breeze and thesun and you had just appeared out of the
sky looking all windblown and happy." Her voice was slightly sardonic as she continued.
"How could any witch resist?"

"I'm not sure," he continued in almost the same tone, "but somehow they do.
Look, it's okay, you know, for you to just admit it. I will. I did, five minutes ago. And here
we go again. Hermione Granger," there was a pause and the illicit listeners all leaned forward
a bit, "I love you. A lot. And not the way I love Ron so don't try that, okay?"

"But that's just because I just kissed you! Until fifteen minutes ago, you would've
never thought of that. And. . .it was. . .it was a mistake."

The males in the room below winced as the girls looked a bit worried. It was obvious in her tone
that Hermione didn't believe a word of what she was saying, but was Harry perceptive enough to.
. .

"That's not true, Hermione." Harry's voice was flat, like he was reciting
something plainly obvious to an ignorant audience that should, in fact, know better. The girls
eavesdropping below seemed to breath a collective sigh of relief.

There was another lengthy pause. Most of the room wished they could see the scene and if they
could, they would've simply seen Harry and Hermione standing across from each other in her tidy
room. They were separated by a foot or two, Hermione looking up at Harry silently as she tried to
refute what he had been saying.

"It's. . .it's just not a good idea. What about Ron?" Hermione's tone was
that of the person who felt they had obviously come up wit h a good point, but those below knew
from the smirk on the mentioned redhead's face that it wasn't one.

"I told him. Downstairs. He told me to come after you."

"Oh." Hermione sounded slightly defeated.

"Let's try it again. If it was just hormones, I'm sure that hearing you tell me all
the reasons it's a bad idea would make it. . .well, not as good." Harry was obviously
trying his best to sound reasonable. "It's an experiment, Hermione. I think I deserve that
much. If it's not like it was the first time, then I walk out of here and we never bring it up
again."

"Oh, Harry, don't be silly. Of course it won't be the same because. . ." And
then all sound stopped. For a minute, Ginny was terrified that the ear had stopped working and then
Harry's voice came through again.

"That was the same."

"Well," Hermione started weakly, "maybe it was."

"It was. It was. . .better than catching the Snitch, you know. I meant it when I told you
you're beautiful last year and you're beautiful now. All bright eyes and your face always
has this. . .glow, even when you're mad at me. You're smart and beautiful and different.
How could I have not realized this sooner?" Harry said wonderingly, almost to himself, and
then cleared his throat and tried to sound serious but not pleading. "I think we ought to at
least give this a chance. Hermione, give me a chance."

"How. . .how could I not?"

And just at that moment, Hermione, insuring a few minutes in which they could close this
important conversation properly, reset her wards, disabling the Ear. Fortunately for him, she was
even too distracted to hear Ron's whoop of glee.

She would certainly wonder, though, in the weeks to come, why Lavender and Parvati kept asking
Ron and Seamus why they couldn't conduct more experiments.



