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Author: cwarbeck Story: Some Kind of Wonderful Rating: Teens Setting: AU Status: Completed Reviews: 15 Words: 26,059
She had taken to hanging around her fellow fifth-years and with other Gryffindors, but had apparently been avoiding sitting with Harry, Hermione, and Ron anymore. Tonight she was sitting next to Dean Thomas. Much to Harry’s dismay, she seemed to be very attentive to Dean, but Harry noted that she was talking animatedly to Colin Creevey and Neville Longbottom as well. She seems to be really friendly with everyone except me, he thought forlornly. Suddenly losing his appetite, he stared morosely down at his plate. “Harry, is something wrong?” Hermione looked at him worriedly from across the table. “You’ve been pushing your food around all night. Aren’t you hungry?” “Yeah, mate, aren't you going to eat those peas? Can I have them?” Ron swiped the offending vegetables off Harry’s plate. Harry hadn’t even noticed that he had automatically separated them from the rest of his vegetables. “Ron! Stop eating other people’s food! Good grief. Don’t you have enough on your plate?” reprimanded Hermione, pointing to the enormous pile of bangers and mash, steak and kidney pie and chips in front of Ron. She turned back to Harry, concern settling back on her features. “What is it, Harry? Are you worried about V-Voldemort?” Harry gave a start. He hadn’t even thought of Voldemort for the past few days; he had been too preoccupied by the confusion he felt over what had happened with Ginny. He shook his head. “No, Hermione. For once, I can truthfully say that I am not thinking about Voldemort.” “Ah,” Ron intoned wisely, giving his friends a full view of the contents of his mouth. Hermione turned away in revulsion. Ron washed down his food with a healthy swig of pumpkin juice. “Harry’s worried about his date with Cho tomorrow.” Grateful for the excuse that Ron had inadvertently given him, Harry nodded quickly and said, “Yeah, that’s it,” hoping that Hermione would leave it at that. She glanced at him shrewdly and then looked over at Ginny and Dean, who were laughing at something that Colin had said. “O-kay,” she said slowly. “But I thought that Ginny had worked out a plan so that you wouldn’t mess up this date. She did, didn’t she?” “Yes, she did. She gave me lots of pointers,” Harry answered. Merlin, did she ever, he thought sourly. “Oh, yeah? Like what kind of pointers?” Ron said interestedly. “Maybe you can share them with me sometime.” He started to turn pink around the ears as Hermione stared curiously at him. Ron quickly ducked his head. “I could use all the help I need in the dating department,” he muttered to himself. “Harry, what did Ginny say?” Hermione turned her attention back to Harry. “Did she tell you what to wear? How to act? What to say?” “Yeah, yeah, all of those,” Harry said, trying to sound casual, fighting the urge to blush like Ron. He hoped that Hermione would stop asking him questions. He was starting to feel highly uncomfortable. Hermione, however, appeared to be enjoying herself immensely as she continued to interrogate him. “Did she tell you what to wear?” she asked again. “Did she tell you how to kiss properly?” Ron’s head snapped up from his plate. “What’s that? Did Ginny show you how to snog someone?” He narrowed his eyes at Harry, who was fidgeting with his fork. “No, Ron, she didn’t show me anything,” Harry responded in what he hoped was a totally guilt-free voice. She just snogged me senseless and left me there to die from the sheer ecstasy of it. “She just told me some stuff in general.” Seeing that Ron was getting a little worked up, he hastened to clarify, “She did say something about the ‘Snogging Scale’.” Harry looked pointedly at Hermione, whose eyes had widened in surprise and with something that looked like alarm. “‘Snogging Scale’? What in the name of Merlin is that?” Ron asked, still scrutinizing Harry as he shoved another forkful of food into his mouth. “Ask Hermione. Apparently it’s a girl thing.” Harry jerked his head towards the brown-haired witch, thankful that Ron had been diverted from his curiosity about Harry and Ginny’s ‘lessons’. Hermione gave a little cough and pressed her lips together. “Well, Ron, if you must know… ” Ron smirked and actually stopped eating. He leant back from the table and gestured magnanimously. “Yes, Hermione. Please. Do enlighten me.” Hermione huffed at him in annoyance. “It’s really nothing. Just a bit of silliness that Lavender and Parvati came up to see how far a boy has gone with a girl’s affections.” Ron was mystified. “What the bloody hell does that mean?” In spite of his rather tetchy mood, Harry couldn’t help but snicker at Ron’s befuddlement. “It seems, mate, that the girls actually have a scoring system as to how far they’ll let a boy go on a date.” “Yeah?” Now Ron looked positively fascinated. “You mean, like kissing and touching and stuff?” Harry smiled and nodded, while Hermione tried to appear uninterested in the conversation by suddenly discovering a miniscule tear in her robes and making a great deal of fuss over it. “So, what does this scale say?” Ron insisted, turning to face Harry and almost knocking over his goblet in his eagerness. Harry hid his grin behind a sip of pumpkin juice. “I’m not so keen on the details, Ron. Let me see… from what I can recall, holding hands is a ‘1’, I think. And, erm… kissing for more than three minutes is – um – a ‘4’? And upper body fondling is a ‘9’ or something. Isn’t that right, Hermione?” He raised his eyebrows at her. “I really wouldn’t know, as I found it a very suspect rating system,” Hermione said frostily, looking highly affronted. She primly folded her hands on the table. “And it’s an ‘8’, Harry,” she continued in a haughty voice. When Harry and Ron gazed at her in puzzlement, she sighed and proceeded to expound on her last statement, “You've made a mistake with the scaling system. Upper body fondling while outdoors is an ‘8’ not a ‘9’. Upper body fondling – while in bed – would rate a ‘9’. And a '10', of course, would be–” Hermione broke off her lecture when she saw the smirk on Harry's face. Realizing that she had just admitted that she was more cognizant of the topic than she had previously claimed, Hermione blushed furiously and muttered darkly to herself. She immersed herself in hunting for a quill in her bag. Harry chuckled into his hand. “Blimey,” Ron breathed. “I wonder how far I can go with –” Ron stopped in mid-sentence, his entire face flaming a brilliant scarlet when he realized he was staring straight at Hermione who, for her part, seemed to be intent on ignoring Ron’s comment. She swung her bushy hair to hide her equally red face as she continued to root in her bag for the non-existent quill. Harry laughed as his friends studiously avoided each others’ gaze. His merriment came to an abrupt halt when a smirking Ron suddenly said in a loud voice, “Hang on. Harry, did Ginny demonstrate these different levels of snogging to you?” “Honestly, Ron,” Hermione tutted, her embarrassment temporarily forgotten. “Ginny would never do anything as inappropriate as that. Besides, it’s Harry, for heaven’s sake. They’re just friends. Even closer than friends. Why, they're practically brother and sister, isn’t that right, Harry?” She arched her eyebrows at Harry and smiled smugly, as if daring him to contradict her. Harry shook his head crossly at Hermione but didn’t have the courage say anything. “And she seems to be interested in someone else.” Hermione inclined her head towards Dean, who was now talking earnestly to Ginny, his face very close to hers. “What the–! What in the name of all that’s bloody is Ginny doing with Thomas?” Ron asked in outrage, stabbing a fork loaded with chips in his sister's direction, inadvertently sending one to land in Harry’s pumpkin juice with a small splash. “Does she fancy him or something?” “She told me that she might be going to Hogsmeade with him tomorrow.” Hermione looked meaningfully at Harry. As Ron seethed and ranted about Dean being too old for his sister, Harry was suddenly hit by the very strange realization that he didn’t want to go to Hogsmeade with Cho Chang after all. What he very much wanted to do was stand up, storm over to Dean, Furnunculus him into next week, and then sweep Ginny off her feet and kiss her until she told him that she only had eyes for him. Wait a bleeding minute. Back up, Potter. Since when did you fancy Ginny Weasley? Harry shook his head in confusion. He couldn’t possibly fancy Ginny – he just missed her company, that’s all. He had become accustomed to her presence all throughout the school year that it just felt odd to see her spend time with someone else. He wasn’t her only friend. She was at perfect liberty to hang around with anyone she wanted. He glanced over at Ginny once more. Apparently, Ginny was having an extremely good time with Dean. She was laughing at something he had said, her head was thrown back in enjoyment. Harry noticed with dismay that Dean’s hand was on her shoulder. Somehow, the intimate gesture made Harry want to hit something. Or someone. Hard. Very, very hard. “Harry?” Hermione looked inquiringly at him. She glanced down at his clenched fists. “I – I think I’ll turn in early, guys. Got to get ready for the big date and all.” He smiled wanly and rose from the table, leaving Ron to continue grumbling about older men taking advantage of innocent young girls. Harry avoided looking at Ginny as he passed her. He really didn’t want to see her fussing over Dean. When he was near the door of the Great Hall, Harry heard someone call out his name. His heart leapt as he turned around, hoping it was Ginny. He could hear his insides give a soft growl of disappointment when he saw that it was Cho who had run after him. He managed to smile at her as she approached him. “Hi, Harry!” Cho exclaimed. “I was just wondering if we’re still on for tomorrow?” I can’t. I want to go with Ginny. He brushed the traitorous thought aside and smiled a little more warmly at her. “Of course, Cho. I can’t wait.” Liar. Harry resolutely ignored the taunting voice inside his head. “Me too, Harry. I’m so excited to go to Hogsmeade with you!” Cho said, offering him a dazzling grin. “I’ll meet you at the courtyard at nine in the morning, okay?” “Sure. See you tomorrow, Cho.” He touched her arm impulsively, trying to make himself feel less guilty about wanting to back out of the date. Cho blushed and kissed him on the cheek. “See you later, Harry.” She smiled and walked back to the Ravenclaw table and sat down amongst her giggling friends. Harry gazed after Cho and reflected that maybe he would enjoy himself tomorrow. After all, Cho was quite pretty, and she seemed to be really interested in getting to know him once more. As he turned to exit the Great Hall, he caught sight of Ginny looking intently at him. She quickly averted her gaze and focused her attention on Dean again. Harry sighed deeply and left the room feeling totally out of sorts. He wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow. Not at all. *
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