Chained In Halloween by moogle

Rating: PG13
Genres: Romance, Humor
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 4
Published: 31/10/2006
Last Updated: 31/10/2006
Status: Completed

Dungeons, chains and Peeves?




1. Chained In Halloween
-----------------------



**Disclaimer: Did not create Harry Potter characters…sadly.**

**A/N: This was for a Halloween challenge on Portkey. Don't blame me if it is random, I was
in a crazy mood.**

**Chained In Halloween**

Hermione Granger leaned her face against the misty window and stared into the stormy sky. Fat
drops of rain splattered against the glass and she could feel the wind sliding through the cracks
in the window to make a cool draft in the already chilly room.

Tonight was the Halloween feast, but she didn't really feel like going. Not with Harry being
there anyway. She had already had too many close calls with him lately.

It wasn't that she disliked Harry, infact, quite the opposite. Hermione Granger was madly in
love with Harry Potter, who just so happened to be her best friend.

It would have been so easy to just tell him if she was sure he liked her back, but the thing
was, he was too busy making sheep eyes at Cho Chang to even notice her feelings. Not that he would
anyway, Cho Chang was everything a guy could want in a girl…and Hermione, well, Hermione was
let's say, average at best.

She had bushy brown hair that was as untameable as Hagrid's. A body that was no curvier than
a ruler and, apart from being extremely bookish, she also had the annoying habit of correcting
people.

But she had her good points too. She was very compassionate, even to those who did not
appreciate her efforts **coughSPEWcough,** and she was always willing to help, no matter how
much it may inconvenience herself.

Hermione could only hope that Harry would see her for who she was and not what she looked like.
She was pretty sure he was the kind of guy to be like that, but with Cho, it kind of made her
think…

“Hermione, aren't you going to come to the feast?” Parvati asked while putting on some
lip-gloss.

Hermione shook her head. “Not this time. I might just sneak down to the kitchens and pick up
something.”

“C'mon Parvati, we're going to be late!” Lavender huffed.

“Oh, right.” Parvati squeaked and quickly checked her face in the mirror before following her
impatient friend.

Hermione watched the door slam shut and sighed, collapsing on her bed. She stared up at the roof
and blankly wondered what Harry was doing right now.

As her stomach gave a rather violent growl, Hermione decided it was time to get some food.

She was just making her way down the great staircase while dreamily thinking of the delicious
food awaiting her in the kitchens when she suddenly found herself falling. With a gasp and slight
twist of horror, she realised that somehow she had tripped over the trick staircase and was now
hurtling very fast down the stairs towards somebody.

**THUMP**

Hermione dazedly sat up as someone groaned underneath her. Pushing her bushy hair out of her
face, she gasped as she stared into the emerald green eyes of Harry Potter. His black messy hair
was looking worse than ever and his glasses had fallen off from the impact.

Hermione suddenly realised that Harry had been talking to her and blushed furiously.

“What?” She said almost breathlessly.

“I said could you get off.” Harry repeated laughingly.

Hermione blushed again. “Oh, right.” She muttered.

It suddenly occurred to her that they were in a very compromising position. Her legs were either
side of him, and her hands were pressed against his chest. Feeling rather awkward, she shifted
slightly, completely oblivious to Harry's uncomfortable looks, and just as she was about to get
up a loud screech pierced the air.

“You! You foul, disgusting pieces of filth!”

Hermione and Harry looked up to see Filch glaring down at them. His eyes were practically
bulging out of his head and there was a nasty vein throbbing by his head.

“You shut my cat in the cupboard!” Filch roared, “Just so you can get up to your dirty mischief
in the middle of the hallways!!”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Harry said seriously.

Hermione frowned, “Mr Filch, we didn't shut your cat in the cupboard.”

“Liars!” Filch snapped, “Why else would you be in that position on the floor right by the
cupboard I found her in.”

“I fell on him by accident.” Hermione said very embarrassed. “We weren't doing
anything.”

Hermione could tell by Filch's expression that he did not believe her.

“Why aren't you in the Great Hall at the feast?” he suddenly barked.

Hermione groaned. All she wanted was to just have some food in the kitchens and stay away from
Harry, but it seemed luck was not on her side.

“I didn't feel like going.” Harry muttered, while helping Hermione to her feet.

“Of course you didn't!” Filch roared. “You wanted to get up to mischief in my hallways and I
won't have it!” he practically squealed.

Hermione shook her head and tried to explain but Filch wouldn't listen. He seemed to be
beside himself with rage and his face was steadily getting blotchier with angry red spots.

“Since you two would rather be naughty together then go to the feast, you can spend your
Halloween in the dungeons.” He said firmly and dragged them by the scruffs of their robes towards
the dungeons, Mrs Norris following happily behind.

They walked in silence, being too embarrassed to say anything. Hermione desperately tried to
regain her composure. She could feel herself blushing just thinking about being so close to
him.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Filch swung open the dungeon door and pushed them roughly
inside. Hermione's eyes instantly fixed themselves on the chains hanging from the wall but
Filch directed them towards two wooden stools.

Hesitantly, Hermione sat down on the stool and looked up into Filch's leering face. She
could see Harry sitting down on the other stool, looking around with a frustrated expression on his
face.

“You'll both stay here until after the feast, in which I shall bring your Head of House to
decide what to do about your disgusting behaviour.” Filch said evilly and with flourish, waved his
wand to make chains wrap themselves around Harry and Hermione.

Hermione gasped. She had always thought he was a squib, but as she heard him leave the room, she
distinctly heard him mutter, “Thankyou Kwikspell.”

The door shut with a snap and Hermione let out a moan of frustration.

“Can you believe this?” Harry groaned. “We're stuck in here, while everyone else is enjoying
the feast! I heard they got a wizard band hired too.”

Hermione wobbled her chair around a bit so she could see him better and frowned. “Why didn't
you go to the feast?” She asked curiously.

“I was looking for you actually. Lavender said that you weren't coming.”

“Oh, sorry. It's my fault we're in this mess.” Hermione mumbled glumly, as her stomach
gave another protest of hunger.

“Sounds like you need some food.” Harry laughed.

Hermione nodded, “I was just on my way to the kitchens to get some food when I fell down the
stairs.”

Harry smiled slightly and then frowned, as though something had just occurred to him. He looked
up at Hermione piercingly, “Why didn't you want to come to the feast?”

Hermione nervously avoided his gaze. This was dangerous ground. If she wasn't careful she
could end up blurting out everything. “Well, I had a lot of work to do.”

Harry looked a bit sceptical. “You don't have any work…unless this is an extra project?”

“Oh, you know, exams are coming up.” Hermione said airily, “And you can never be too
prepared.”

Harry laughed but did not say anything, for which Hermione was very glad.

“What do you think Filch is going to do with us?” Harry asked after a long pause.

“I dunno.” Hermione said thoughtfully. “We have no proof to say we were not having…” She broke
off and blushed.

“Sex?” Harry said just as awkwardly.

“Yeah.” Hermione muttered going pink, “That. So, I guess all we can do is hope they will believe
us.”

Harry nodded and another awkward pause followed.

“These chains are starting to really hurt.” Hermione complained to break the silence.

“I know.”

“I wonder if we could get them off.” Hermione said thoughtfully. “I'm sure no one will
care.”

Harry shrugged, (Well, tried to shrug anyway) “It's worth a try. But I can't reach my
wand at all.”

“That does make it difficult.” Hermione sighed.

Just then a distant cackle came from underneath them, followed by an evil looking little man
wearing a bright orange bow tie. He appeared to be wearing a pirate hat and a patch in celebration
of Halloween.

“Ooo, look at the ickle students put in the naughty seats. Should be ashamed.” He tutted,
waggling his finger at them.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Peeves was a poltergeist, and an annoying one at that.

“What do you want?” She muttered, resigning herself to listening to ridiculous taunts.

Peeves grinned and blew a raspberry, “I was just having a nosey and happened to spot you two and
so I decided we should play a little game. If you win, I'll let you out of those chains and put
in a good word for you.”

Getting out of those chains seemed to be a good idea to Hermione right now, since they were
digging rather painfully into her skin and here was a chance to prove they were innocent. But
playing a game with Peeves didn't seem like a very safe thing to do.

“What kind of game?” Harry asked curiously.

Peeves looked at them through his legs as he tried to do somersaults, “Just a simple game of
look away.”

“Look-”

“-Away?”

Harry and Hermione stared at each other perplexed.

“What is that?” They said in unison.

Peeves grinned even more. “It's a simple game. I will face the wall and you have to get to
the wall without me seeing you move. When I turn around you must be completely still, or else you
have to go back to the beginning.”

Hermione thought that didn't sound too bad but she still couldn't believe Peeves would
let them off so easy.

“What's the catch?” She asked suspiciously.

Peeves looked rather offended, (well imitated looking offended), “There is no catch. I am simply
in the mood for a game…but if you both fall over it's game over and I'll leave you in
here.”

“I knew there was a catch.” Hermione muttered.

Peeves merely grinned again and started swooping around as he waited for their decision to be
made.

“What do you think?” Harry asked Hermione. “Should we play his game?”

Hermione couldn't see whether they had any option. Being chained to a wooden stool certainly
wasn't going to make it easy, but what choice did they have?

“I guess we should.” She replied heavily. “Let's just hope neither of us fall over.”

“Right.” Harry affirmed. “Peeves, we'll play your game.”

Peeves cackled and swooped to the other end of the dungeon. “Let the game begin!” he said
happily and turned to face the wall.

Hermione nodded briefly to Harry before attempting to move. Because she was chained to a wooden
stool and could not move her legs, that was not an easy feat. It seemed that the only way to do it
was to grip the chair with her fingers and lift her whole body of the ground in a jump. It was very
difficult and more than once she thought she was going to fall over.

Peeves, meanwhile seemed to be having the time of his life as he listened to them jump slowly
along the dungeon floor. He was starting to get sneakier, as he looked back in shorter intervals
and did double looks.

Hermione was starting to get tired and annoyed, as she was sent back to the beginning for
getting caught moving. She glanced up at Harry who was almost at the end but too late; he fell over
from his jump and could not get back up again.

“Harry!” Hermione cried, jumping towards him.

“I'm sorry Hermione.” Harry said defeated, as he lay on his side. “I couldn't do it. I
guess it is all up to you now.”

Hermione could only stare at him, (for Peeves had just turned around).

“You can do it!” Harry said encouragingly, as he smiled.

Hermione nodded and stared at Peeves back with a determined expression. Quickly she took two
jumps and paused as he swivelled around to blow a raspberry at her. Hermione ignored his taunting
and quickly started jumping again as he turned back around.

Twice she thought she was going to fall, and even more was she almost caught for moving, but she
remained calm and continued to jump towards the poltergeist, ignoring the horrible pain spreading
through her body and the ragged gasps issuing from her mouth.

Finally she found herself directly behind Peeves.

“Y-you l-lose” She gasped before collapsing to the floor on her stool.

Peeves looked as though he couldn't believe he lost and Harry tried to shuffle along on his
side to get to Hermione. But Hermione was too tired to care. She just lay on her side trying to
catch her breath back.

Peeves removed the chains and scowled dreadfully before vanishing through the door.

“Hermione.” Harry said happily, as he hugged her. “You did it!”

Hermione smiled and leaned into his hug. “I hope I never have to do that again.”

Harry laughed and pulled himself away from her. Their eyes met and Hermione could feel a sudden
heat rushing through her body, which had nothing to do with all the jumping she just did.

As if in slow motion his head leaned towards her and his lips came to rest against her own.

Hermione stared at him surprised as she blushed adorably. “Harry I-”

“I know Hermione.” Harry said smiling. “I've always known. I guess I just needed to find the
courage.”

Hermione frowned, “But what about Cho?”

Harry shook his head. “I don't care about Cho. I care about you.” He said touching her cheek
gently.

Hermione couldn't help it, she laughed. After all this time he had cared for her and she had
been so worried about Cho. “I've been so blind.” She muttered.

“We've both been blind.” Harry agreed.

Hermione nodded and leaned against him. “Perhaps it wasn't so bad us being chained in the
dungeons after all.” She mused.

Harry laughed, “I think you may be right.” He concurred and leaned in to kiss her again.

Almost shyly, Hermione placed her hands around his neck as she leaned in to the kiss.

“Well, I always expected something like this to happen on Valentine's Day, but on
Halloween?” Professor McGonagall said dryly from the doorway.

Hermione and Harry sprang apart in shock but were surprised to see a small smile playing around
McGonagall's thin mouth.

“You can go. I'll talk with Mr Filch later.”

Harry and Hermione nodded and quickly left the room.

Hermione couldn't believe how lucky she was. Though everything had appeared to be going
wrong, in the end it had all turned right. Harry had admitted his feelings for her, and she even
got a kiss.

The only thing that could complete her happiness now was a giant piece of chicken…

**END**

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