35. Chapter 35: Harry

Thank you for all the positive feedback. :D I had a little writer's block for this chapter but after I thought of some ideas I started writing really fast... O.o That's the weird thing about writing fanfiction, when you run out of ideas you don't want to even touch the keyboard, but as soon as a good idea forms in your head you start typing at a superhuman speed. Hehe.

And some people have been lamenting for Ron... yes, Ron is indeed pitiful right now but we'll see about him at the end. XD I don't really hate him that much apart from the fact he bagged Hermione in the books, so he won't have too sad an ending. It's not like I'll slaughter him viciously... though that would make an interesting turn of events... lol. Nah, I'm not that cruel. Of course that won't happen. -Shifty eyes-

& toodle doo...

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10 Ways to Kill Draco Malfoy

Chapter 35

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HARRY

I can't believe Ron did what he just did.

He kissed Hermione. Sure, that in itself isn't that big a deal. But Hermione is very obviously taken, by Malfoy might I add, and she had openly rejected Ron already. I don't know what he was thinking when he made that move. Now their friendship'll be on the line - if he doesn't stop chasing her, she'll have to avoid him; if he sulks, she'll have to leave him be; out of a total of three main possible outcomes, only one is positive and that's if they both come to terms with each others' situations and remain best friends. Hermione's already told Ron very plainly that she's in love with Draco Malfoy, and he even seemed to accept the blow when she rejected him.

And though I'm a little pained by it, she did reject him outright. She didn't just go to Malfoy and assume Ron would take the hint.

Well... although I'm Ron's best friend and a guy, I still think he was wrong. I know better than to intervene, though; if I did Hermione would get pissed by any comment that suggests I'm on Ron's side and Ron'll get pissed when he realizes I'm on Hermione's side. Basically, if I got involved in their feud I'm come off worse in either scenario. Which is not good. Not good at all.

"Looks like Ron's still not over her," Lavender, who is standing next to me, comments offhandedly. I stare at her. She looks up at me, eyebrows raised. "What? Don't tell me you didn't realize what happened. Ron Weasley, who was only supposed to do what Dean told him to, gave Hermione Granger AKA Draco Malfoy's girlfriend a full-on snog. Phew, that was a confusing sentence, wasn't it?" She pretends to wipe her brow and I roll my eyes. Ever the drama queen, Lavender is.

"So what's gonna happen now?" Dean comes over and asks, looking worried and casting glances at Ron, who is sitting sullenly in a armchair. "I know Hermione'll blame me... after all, I made the task up. But how was I supposed to know 2 and 9 would turn out to be those two, of all people? And I never would have guessed Ron's reaction to it! I heard all about when Hermione's rejected him... boy, do I feel sorry for that guy. Makes me remember how sad and traumatized I felt when Ginny dumped me..." He sniffles a few times for good measure until, speak of the Devil, the redhead herself comes elbowing into our little group.

My heartbeat skips and I feel an odd spark of happiness growing in my brain. It's weird how Ginny can affect me like this. Kind of like how I used to like Cho and felt all strange and nervous around her, but on a greater scale. After all, I never really got serious with Cho, because she always seemed to be with or thinking of Cedric and I didn't want to feel bad by getting together with his old girlfriend when she's clearly still hanging on to his memory. Nowadays she's not so bad as she was, and occasionally I see her with other guys. Meaning that she's getting over Cedric's death and moving on.

Very touching. But let's get back to reality.

"Cut out the emotional crap, Dean," Ginny laughs. "You weren't even that disappointed when I dumped you."

Dean put on an insulted expression. "How could you say that to me, your ex-faithful boyfriend for the summer?"

Ginny and Lavender giggle. I feel a little pang but say nothing and grin. "I'm sure that Muggle girl living next door to you comforted you enough," Ginny says, smiling. Then she hooks onto my arm. "You have her, I have Harry. Happy ending." She snuggles into me and plants a kiss on my cheek. Lavender rolls her eyes at the public display of affection and Dean pretends to gag. I just feel bliss. Ahh. What a life. Awesome friends and Ginny holding onto my arm. This is all I could ever hope for.

Until Hermione bursts back into the common room, glares at Ron and marches up to her dormitory. Good thing there's nothing but a curtain between the common room and the dorms, or that door would probably be broken and hanging off its hinges right now. Everyone in the room gulps silently at the confrontation between the two that would obviously occur tomorrow, and although they are eager not to be caught in the middle of it, they are also equally eager to watch the spectacle. I sigh. I'll be the only one trying to break them up and likely to be in the middle of much aggressiveness from both parties.

"Come on, Harry. Let's get to bed." At Ginny's words and tugging on my sleeve, I snap out of my sombre thoughts and realize what she says. Instantly my face flames red. Noticing my change in color, she frowns in confusion, tries to recall her actions or words and starts laughing. "Aw, you dirty-minded boy!" she smirks. "You know I didn't mean it that way... or are you thinking about that already?"

I shake my head furiously, flustered. "N-no, no! Course I have- I mean, haven't! Haven't!" Obviously that's a lie. It's a little hard not to daydream about it sometimes... but I didn't want to seem like a typical horny male to her. Ginny would be disgusted with me. I mean, I've kept up the whole good-boyfriend thing - buying her the occasional present, snogging regularly but not going much further and going on dates. I don't want to ruin it... after all, we've only been going out a few months. I don't know if that's long enough to start thinking about... that. You know. And plus Ginny's only 15. I'd feel like a paedophile.

She laughs. "It's OK, you know... I know loads of people who have started doing it only a couple of weeks into their relationship. And they're 4th years or the same age as me. Not meaning I want to start too," she adds quickly, blushing. "I'm just saying that we can start talking about it, if that's what you want."

Boy, this talk is getting pretty serious. I check for eavesdroppers and continue talking. "Well... of course I'll wait until you're ready. It's the girl's permission that matters."

"Harry, you're such a gentleman," she winks and kisses me, sliding her arms around my shoulders. The kiss deepens and I find myself trying not to be a typical male and slide my hand up her top. Argh! What are these urges? It's killing me. Oh well... I might as well enjoy a snog for now.

"Get a room, you two," Seamus laughs behind me. I jump a feet in the air and the two of us leap apart as though electrified, even though everyone knows about us and it's not such a big deal anymore. It's still embarrassing to be caught french kissing in public... and as I look around, we're standing right in the front of the boys' dormitory entrance. No wonder Seamus had to get rid of us.

Ginny pokes her tongue out at him and dashes over to the girls' side after pecking me one last time on the lips. "Spoilsport," she says, making a face at the other boy and then heads into the dorms.

"God, she's such a vixen," Seamus says, sighing and then laughing as I poke him hard in the ribs. "Ouch! I was kidding, kidding! I wouldn't dare make a move on her, she's all yours. I swear."

"You'd better not, or you'll have me hexing your butt all the way to Hogsmeade. And I promise it'll be fun - for me." I smirk at him and the two of us head inside, laughing and talking together. Seamus is a good guy. Even though his parents might feed him the occasional rumor, setting him against me, he's always come back to my side in the end. Plus he's a good laugh.

As I bid goodnight to all of the boys, with Ron grunting in response, I lie on my four-poster bed and stare at the dark overhang. I wonder what Hermione and Ginny are thinking right now? Hermione's probably pissed off; I don't know where she might have gone after she rushed out. Maybe she went to vent her anger out by docking points off some poor 1st years or something. Nah... she's not like that. Even when she's angry Hermione stays fairly rational and she wouldn't do something as unfair as that. Well yeah, in 3rd year she punched Malfoy in the face after he insulted Hagrid, but that was because he was a right git. And anyway, look at the two now - they're a couple. Not bad for people who practically Avada Kedavra'd the ground each other stepped on.

And Ginny. We'd brought up a pretty heavy subject and she seemed to handle it well... but who knew what she really felt inside? She could be quaking in fear about the prospect of doing it. Or she could be eager. OK, it's unlikely she'd be eager OR quaking in fear but which side of the scale does her feelings about it stand? The latter or the former? I hope it's somewhere in the middle. I'm not dying to get it on but it's something we would want to think about.

Unless we break up. Which we hopefully won't.

Ah, this is too much for my brain at this time of night. I take off my glasses, rub my eyes wearily and shift around until I find a comfortable position, and close my eyes.

The next day arrives far too soon. What seemed like only minutes after I fell asleep, Neville is shaking my shoulders and telling me to get up, or I'd be late for my classes. "Harry! Get up! Harry? HARRRRRRRRRRRRY!" The last syllable rings in my ears and still does as I walk dazedly down to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast. Ron comes up by my side a few minutes later, and settles into his usual spot next to me at the Gryffindor table. I glance at him but he doesn't seem to want to say anything other than the mumbled 'Good morning, Harry' he gave me. Turning my gaze, I spot Hermione talking in low voices with Ginny, who keeps casting glares at her older brother and sweet smiles at me. Occasionally she gets confused and glares at me by accident, then wrinkles her nose and starts wolfing down her food. I find this behavior a little weird, but keep it to myself. Ginny has been known for her odd moments, and after being around Hermione so long her odd moments don't really seem that odd.

All throughout the morning Hermione avoided us; Ron for obvious reasons, and me simply because Ron chose to stick with me. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't ask her for tips during the lessons, and more than once Ron cast helpless looks at her but then remembered the situation and sighed to himself. In Charms, Ron failed horribly at the Freezing Charm, and ended up exploding the centipede we were supposed to freeze into an ice cube. Centipede guts flew to all parts of the classroom, but he suffered the most, being right in front of it. It took several creams from Madam Pomfrey to get rid of the acid burns that the guts had caused.

Care of Magical Creatures wasn't much better. It seemed as though today was a centipede-themed day because Hagrid also had a kind of centipede for us to handle. Except, as always with Hagrid, the creatures were a dozen times the size of the ones from Charms and Ron stood to one side behind me, looking fearful in case they exploded in his face again. Hermione didn't even bother to laugh at him. She must be really mad to give up a chance to jeer at Ron, which was something that came straight after 'Bickering with Ron' on her list of hobbies.

Unfortunately it was Double Care of Magical Creatures, and as usual we were with the Slytherins. Hermione spent most of her time with Draco, talking and laughing occasionally. It seemed as though Malfoy was doing a lot of flirting, because her cheeks were always red and her expression always grinning and content. A big change from the stormy banshee (OK, she didn't look as bad as that, but you know what I mean, right?) we were unlucky enough to encounter last night. And part of me even felt thankful to the ferret for cheering her up, because none of us Gryffindors seemed to be able to have done the same, to such an obvious effect.

I sigh. What am I doing? Sticking up for Malfoy instead of my best friend? I must be mad.

"Harry... do you think I should apologize to her?" Ron asked me finally during dinner, albeit in a rather muffled voice through a mouthful of sausage.

I glare at him until he swallows. "What about... YES! And why didn't you think of that earlier, genius? If anything, Hermione's gotten more and more angry throughout the day. I don't expect an apology'll help much at this point but it'll stop her blood pressure from rising anymore at the sight of you."

He flinched. "Ow, that was harsh. But I don't feel too bad about what I did... I mean, I still do like her."

"It's the truth, Ron, and the truth hurts. Accept it. And you know Hermione's not going to give up Draco to be with you. Anyway, even if you two did eventually get together I'd feel left out of the trio." I spear a piece of chicken and jam it in my mouth in a a-best-friend-who-is-annoyed-because-you-won't-apologize-to-our-other-best-friend kind of action. I hold back tears when the heat burns at my tongue and guzzle down the whole cup of pumpkin juice as fast as humanly possible. Which isn't such a wise thing to do because hot plus cold equals sore stomach.

Ron spent the rest of dinner simultaneously stuffing himself full as usual and practising things he could say to Hermione to make her feel better. "'Hermione, your hair looks wonderful today.' No, that would be a lie... Hermione's hair isn't frizzy anymore but it's not exactly sleek either... er... -Swallow- 'Have you gain- no, lost weight?' Nah, too personal... -Gulp- -Swallow- Um... Harry, any helpful suggestions?"

I roll my eyes at him. "You know I wouldn't be any help to you. For this kind of thing you have to consult another girl." He sighs tragically and continued muttering to himself. I grin and pat him on the back. "Good luck, mate." He mutters ominously at me and I start laughing. "See you later! Hopefully by then you'll have made your apologies to Hermione. I don't think I could stand another night of tension between you guys."

"Yeah, you're right about that part," he says, and then I leave. Ginny's already gone and Hermione is now talking somewhat unanimately with Lavender. Those two aren't exactly the most compatible of friends... gee, she must really be pissed if she won't even sit next to me when Ginny's gone. I shake my head sadly and walk towards the common room to get some homework done.

Minutes later, I approach a corner and hear voices. Stopping despite myself, I lean my back against the wall and listen, feeling a little guilty about tuning in on someone else's conversation - most likely a private one, judging by the fact that they weren't attending dinner when the desserts had just barely arrived before I left.

"... go away! I already told you, I have a boyfriend!"

"I don't want to be your boyfriend. I just want to be friends. Hear me out, OK?"

"Oh yeah? Then why are you- Harry!"

I'd heard enough and stepped out to stare at the scene before me. Ginny is enveloped in the hug of some guy with a dark, cropped hair and by the looks of it, she's struggling pretty hard to get away. I'd heard anough from their conversation before revealing my presence that Ginny was innocent, but the boy? He wasn't going to get off lightly from this one. I consider using my wand to hex him, but if Filch heard the noise he'd definitely put me in detention. I'd suffered enough detentions in my past years to not want another one anytime soon. "Ginny, step aside," I snarl and land the first hit on the guy's cheek. He staggers back and Ginny runs up to me to stop me.

"Harry, no! Don't start a fight because of me! It wouldn't be worth it if you ended up in the Hospital Wing," she cries, dragging me back. I gently but firmly throw her off and duck as a punch zooms past the top of my head.

"Who the hell are you?" the boy asks rudely, glaring at me and rubbing his grazed cheek. "You throw a pretty tough punch."

Secretly delighted at the sort-of compliment, I put on a courageous expression. "I'm Harry Potter. Ginny's boyfriend, in case you haven't realized yet."

He smiles. "So you're the boyfriend she keeps going on about! Harry Potter, huh? I know you. Then again, who doesn't?" He narrows his eyes. "I admit you're famous and all, but you're not that great on the eyes."

All my respect for him disappears and my expression turns into a grimace. "OK, I didn't want to pick a fight with a random guy, but you're just asking for it." I headbutt him and ram him to the ground while he's standing there looking surprised, and start kicking him. I don't want to break anything, but I do want a couple of good bruises on him as a memorial. Resisting the urge to stomp on his chest and thus break through his rib cage and squash his internal organs, causing a bloody and gory mess, I settle for continuous kicking until he springs up and twists my foot away - rather fast for someone who just banged his head against the ground and had the wind knocked out of him. He holds on to my foot and looks as though he's prepared to break my ankle before Ginny jumps on his back and sticks her wand into the underside of his arm. He yelps in pain and drops my leg, and I quickly crawl away. Although he hasn't done any lasting damage, he's twisted it more than a foot is supposed to twist and now there's a throbbing pain in my right foot.

"Ha! Take that!" Ginny yells triumphantly, and runs to my side. "Are you alright, Harry? He hasn't broken anything, has he?" I shake my head and am rewarded with a long kiss. Behind her, I see crop-boy making lovey-dovey faces at us, and when he spots me glaring at him he smirks. Instantly I know by that smirk that he is a Slytherin. Probably another Malfoy idolizer.

"I see you two have already gone quite far," he comments when our kiss outlasts 10 seconds. "But I'm guessing you're still holding back in public... boy, you should see Draco Malfoy - even in public he doesn't hold much back when he makes a move on a girl. Amazing confidence, I tell you."

I knew I was right about the idolizing thing. "And I care about Draco Malfoy because...?"

"... because you could learn a thing or two from him about pleasing girls." He winks. "If you know what I mean."

Ginny throws him a dirty look. "Don't be so vulgar, Elliot," she says crisply to him. "God, you're still as... urgh as ever. Get your mind out of the gutter and keep it there!"

He grins at her and blows her a mock kiss. "Whatever, Ginny. Enjoy yourselves. I guess since you're such a perfectly happy couple, I won't try to intervene anymore. But that doesn't mean I'll keep away from her, which is probably what you're hoping for in that cramped little mind of yours."

"Elliot..." she says in a warning voice as she lifts her wand. I do the same and we must have looked very threatening, because he quickly walks away. Laughing at his receding figure, Ginny hugs me and helps me up. "Can you walk? No, wait. I'll support you. By the look on your face, you look like you could pass out any moment."

I laugh weakly. "Well, it didn't start out this painful, but it is now. Sorry for being a burden and not beating him up. It seems like I can't beat anyone up these days. Last time when Blaise snogged you... I wanted to rip his lips off his face and burn them in a lamp, but I just didn't have the guts to go up and challenge him one on one. And now... Even Hermione's doing better than me when it comes to violence."

"Hahaha! But then again, Hermione's always being an overly violent person, hasn't she?" Ginny says, giggling. "So it's no big deal if she's more violently active than you. And anyway, you didn't lose this time - Davidson gave up the fight himself."

"Only because you tuned in to your inner warrior spirit and jabbed him," I smile. "Though you really should have aimed for somewhere that would... hurt more. But I understand. After all, if you did your wand would be kinda tainted right now."

Ginny grins at me, props my arm around her shoulders and the two of us make our way back to the Gryffindor common room, with me hobbling like an old man without his walking cane and her supporting me.

Ahhh... even if I suffered a painful twist of my foot, it was still worth it if it meant I was getting a chance to put my arm around my girlfriend without seeming sappy and over-possessive. Add on the fact that I hate acting affectionately in public, and this opportunity almost seems golden to me.

I still hate you though, Elliot Davidson. And I'm pretty certain I always will.

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This chapter, apart from featuring hardly any D/Hr, seems a little shorter than usual... or maybe it's just me. Ah well, this is what happens when I multi-fic and try to update both fics normally at the same time. X.x Forgive me! I promise next chapter will feature lots of Hermione/Draco and will be longer. I swear. -Runs away screaming from the legions of people throwing things at her- I PROMISSSSSSEE!