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"Dammit, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, although she kept her voice quiet enough to make sure that no one around them heard. She firmly pulled his hand away from where it had perched on her bum, and frowned when he grinned devilishly at her. "Save that for later," she told him sternly.
"No one is looking towards us," he assured her. "And I can't help it if you have such an irresistible arse."
She rolled her eyes and looked around, her gaze first fixing on where Pansy Parkinson was passed out cold on the floor in front of them. She had draped the corner of the rug of their shared common room over herself like a blanket.
The shared living area for all of the returned "eighth-years" at Hogwarts sometimes seemed like a brilliant idea and sometimes like a disaster. They were granted the old, secluded Marriage Quarters on the fifth floor, which hadn't been used in decades, and Hermione had initially been thrilled to have her Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends close by, and had mostly just ignored the Slytherins. But the surprising reappearances of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson scuttled those plans, as they were far more difficult to ignore than the quieter Slytherins were.
But Malfoy and Parkinson were somewhat quieter than in years past, and far less keen to insult the Gryffindors, except when Ron provoked them.
Still, on nights like tonight, when an impromptu party was thrown in celebration of the approaching holidays, the seven years of social segregation between the houses rose back to the surface. The Ravenclaws lingered in their corner, with their calm conversations and their judgmental glances at the antics of everyone else. The Hufflepuffs' rowdiness emerged in fits and spurts, and there were times, like now, when they were locked into their own conversations and internal competitions. Ironically, at the moment, it was the Gryffindors and Slytherins who looked like they had mingled the most with each other, if only because Parkinson had chosen to pass out right in the midst of the Gryffindors, nearby where Neville was quickly becoming his own brand of sentimental mess on the floor.
And then there were Ginny and Luna, who could be found amidst their eighth-year friends more often than not, even though they still had their own accommodations in their respective towers. Luna tended to orbit around the older Ravenclaws and Gryffindors in equal measure now that she was more accepted by her housemates, while Ginny, to the amazement and frustration of her brother, was the most keen to extend an olive branch to their former Slytherin enemies. Hermione had a suspicion as to why, and had shared that suspicion with Harry, but they both carefully kept the secret from their best friend.
They were also keeping the altered state of their friendship a secret for the time being. Even though Hermione had been firm and plainspoken in her rejection of Ron over the summer, leaving no room for him to continue to believe that there might eventually be anything more between them than a close friendship, she knew that he wasn't completely over her, and neither she nor Harry wanted to hurt him by going public with their... their...
Honestly, there wasn't much clarity at all as to what she and Harry now were to each other. They were taking advantage of their shared living arrangements to give in to all of the adolescent desires that they had suppressed during their years in the shadow of Voldemort, but having lots and lots of sex did not equate to romance, not that either of them were going looking for romance at the moment. In fact, Harry's inability to keep his hands off her when no one was looking was the closest they came to impersonating a real couple.
Sure enough, his hand soon found its way back to her bum, like a moth to a flame, and she huffed but let it remain there so long as no one else could see it. They had been inseparable for seven years now, so it wasn't as though anyone would see anything strange in how close to each other they were presently standing.
And then something happened that ensured that no one would be looking their way for the next several minutes: Ginny, in plain view of most of the party, took hold of Malfoy's hand, and he looked at her in confusion but didn't pull away. Blaise Zabini began clapping dramatically, drawing the attention of everyone who wasn't already looking.
And then Ron, who was standing on the lowermost of the stairs up to the dormitories, erupted. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING?" he shouted at his sister, holding onto the banister with both hands to keep himself upright in his shock and fury.
Ginny spared him only a brief glance. "I'm holding my boyfriend's hand," she replied mildly, smiling up at Malfoy.
"BOYFRIEND?"
"Ron, knock it off!" Hermione threw up her own hands dramatically, seizing the opportunity to quite deliberately smack Harry in the face. It served him right for not being able to resist touching her.
Ron ignored her. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?" he demanded of Malfoy. "YOU THINK YOU CAN CORRUPT MY SISTER? I'LL KILL YOU, YOU DARK FUCKER!"
Malfoy's confused look dissipated, and he turned to Ron and returned his scowl. "Am I supposed to be scared?" he drawled. "I can't wait to show your sister just how good a fucker I am, Weasel."
"Draco!" Ginny snapped, nudging his arm hard with her shoulder. Then she turned to her brother. "I make my own decisions, Ron. No one is corrupting me, and I don't need any protective older brothers watching over everything I do. Or concerned ex-boyfriends," she added, for Dean and Michael were both shooting her looks of concern, while Harry rubbed his face where Hermione had struck him.
But Ron was not about to calm down anytime soon, and Hermione quickly decided that the best thing for Ginny would be to redirect Ron's wrath towards other targets. "Ron!" she shouted, before turning and pressing herself against Harry. Pulling his hand away from his face, she snogged him.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" Ron yelled.
Hermione gave herself another moment to enjoy the kiss before pulling back and smiling at Harry's dazed and lustful expression. Then she turned back to Ron, who now looked utterly overwhelmed by the diversity of targets for his fury.
"Ronald," Luna said gently, approaching from where she'd been standing with the cluster of other Ravenclaws, "why don't you go upstairs? I would be more than happy to talk through all of tonight's revelations with you, and help you calm down. I even know a spell that will disperse the wrackspurts that are so insistently pestering you at the moment."
Ron stared at her bemusedly, and then looked around at Harry and Hermione and Ginny and Malfoy. "I don't know you anymore," he said in weary exasperation, "any of you." With that, he turned and stomped up the stairs, disappearing from view.
Silence fell behind him, and Ginny and Hermione traded uncertain smiles as they both wondered exactly how much everything had just changed. Then Ginny gave Luna a much more appreciative smile.
Luna smiled back at her, then turned to Harry and Hermione. "I wonder if Harry will struggle even more to keep his hands away from your bottom, Hermione, now that he no longer has to worry about people seeing him touch you."
Harry and Hermione stared at her, and then Hermione shot her beau a frown, and he smiled guiltily.
Humming to herself, Luna trotted up the stairs after Ron, leaving the chaos to settle in her wake.
Ginny approached Harry and Hermione, pulling Malfoy along beside her. "Well, this is new," she said teasingly, although her levity was clearly a bit forced.
"Look who's talking," Harry replied in a matching tone.
"Don't worry about Ron," Hermione tried to assure her, "he'll come around."
Ginny scoffed. "I doubt that, unless Luna's anti-wrackspurt spell can work actual miracles."
Hermione grimaced, silently agreeing. She didn't want her friendship with Ron to be indefinitely fractured, and she knew that Harry wanted that even less. Ron was a git, but he was their git.
Ginny looked down, and then back at Harry. "You really can't stop yourself from touching her arse, can you?" For Harry's hand had, inevitably, found it's way back to the location in question.
Harry shrugged hopelessly. "My hands have minds of their own when she's around."
Ginny looked amused. "You were never like that with me."
"Yeah, well..." Harry shrugged again.
Ginny giggled. "I guess it just took the right person to bring out that side of you." Leaning against Malfoy, she beamed up at him. "I think I can relate."
Malfoy looked awestruck by her declaration. "You can?"
"Yes. In fact..." She leant closer to him and lowered her voice. "What was that you were saying about showing me just how good a fucker you are?"
He stared at her dumbly for another moment, and then looked at Harry and Hermione. "We're going upstairs."
"Malfoy," Hermione called sternly, stopping the couple in their tracks, "if you hurt her, you'll have a lot more than just her brothers to answer to."
His smile turned grim for just a moment as he looked at the Gryffindors in turn. "I know, Granger. I have no intention of hurting her."
"Except when I want you to," said Ginny, drawing another stunned expression from him. Hermione laughed under her breath, realizing that Malfoy clearly didn't fully comprehend exactly what he was getting himself into.
As the couple went upstairs, she turned to Harry and arched a brow. "So, about your hand."
His guilty smile returned, and he moved his hand away.
"Oh, don't bother," she told him. "It's clear that everyone knows about your weakness by now, so let's go upstairs so you can properly touch my bum as much as you like." There was a conversation to be had now that everyone would be assuming they were dating, but she decided that could wait.
An eager grin split his face. "I'm going to do much more than just touch it."
"You better."