Studying

"Get your books Harry," Hermione commands sweetly as she pulls out the chair at her desk and sits down. "Time for some studying!" You make no effort to disguise the groan that wells up within you. Only Hermione could get as excited at getting homework as most people felt about receiving a box of Chocolate Frogs.

You trudge over to the desk as well, where Hermione hands you your own tiny set of books. You can tell that she can barely keep from giggling as you take them. With a final sigh you turn and climb onto the footstool, then onto the chest, and finally her bed which you proceed to lay in the middle of with your books spread around you.

Unfortunately, despite the quiet, you find that you can't focus on any of the subjects. Even Defense Against The Dark Arts struggles to hold your attention. You keep coming back to two troublesome questions: Who took advantage of you and then wiped your memory? And, how could you not have known about something going on between you two best friends? You love them both; but still... Ron and Hermione?

You'd always kinda guessed that Ron has a bit of a crush on Hermione but you never suspected that he was close enough to her that he could just waltz into her room at will. How could he not have shared that with you?! You're his best bud, aren't you? You can't help but glance at the door at you think this; as if the door were going to swing open at any moment and in he'd step.

The thing that really bothers you though, isn't that they have some sort of relationship so much as it's the fact that you shouldn't have needed to suspect they were in one to begin with. They're your best friends in the world, yet neither of them has ever breathed a word of secret rendezvous in Hermione's room.

Even worse, if Hermione could, so willingly, hide that from you; then just how well do you really know her? Could the flash of memory you had have been triggered by the person as much as the situation?

'No,' you tell yourself.

You refused to allow your brain to go down that road. You're just feeling overly sensitive after having your size rubbed in your face by Dobby's recent visit. 'Rubbed in your face.' Unwanted the sliver of memory flashes behind your eyes again. The feeling of helplessness; of almost... claustrophobia. You find yourself gazing at Hermione as she works dutifully on her latest assignment. If it had been her; why would she have erased your memory last time but not this time? Yet she had seemed awfully casual about revealing her, admittedly glorious, body to you. God, this was just going to eat away at you. You're in a rough spot as it is with this damned disease and you're going to need to know who you can trust as you grow smaller and more helpless.

"Hermione," you say at last. You have to know...

"Yes, Harry," she replies gently without looking up from her parchment.

"Have you ever... uh..." you say, losing most of your nerve at the last moment, "that is, have you ever taken advantage of, uh, somebody before?"

You regret asking almost before you're done speaking the words. If, somehow, the culprit WERE Hermione; she's certainly smart enough to see through your amazingly cunning and obviously carefully thought out question. 'So Hermione, did you use my shrinking body to get yourself off and then erase my memory?' Yup, that's pretty much the only way you could have been less smooth you silver tongued devil you. :::::sigh::::: For just an instant the thought of following Dobby's lead by banging your head against the wall, doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

Sure enough, you can practically feel the atmosphere in the room change once you've just lobbed the question out there. While she doesn't turn to look at you; her writing stops immediately and you have little doubt that you have her full attention. "Excuse me," she says. Her tone is quiet but extremely icy.

"I... I just mean..." you begin again in rising panic as you realize that maybe you don't want the answer to your troublesome questions so much after all, "I mean like, cheating off of somebody else's test or something like that." Strange as it is, you actually feel a quick hint of pride as managing to come up with an excuse that sounds at least somewhat plausible.

"That's not what you mean," Hermione snaps back quickly as she turns towards you. You've been in a number of life threatening situations before; facing trolls, spiders, and even The Dark Lord himself; yet suddenly they all seem to pale to the fire and anger reflected in Hermione's eyes. "You're talking about what I did with you."

The realization of what she just said almost takes the legs out from under you. 'What I did with you.' So it was Hermione all along?! Dumbledore's hand picked keeper. But how? Why?! This would never have happened had Ginny been assigned to you!

"So... so it WAS you!" you say, your own anger forcing it into a scream as you point your finger at her.

"Well of course it was me," Hermione shoots back instantly. Her tone rising to match your own. "And it was you! And if you think that you're going to get me into trouble because of one little mistake you had better rethink it right NOW!"

"One little mistake?!" you practically shriek. "You took advantage of me. How could you do that to me?!"

"How could I not?" she exclaims in an almost incredulous tone. "You were practically begging for it! I'm flesh and blood, just like you Harry. How can any woman resist for long 'The Boy That Lived' when he's right there for the taking?!"

The world spins around you as you try to wrap your head around not only her confession but the sheer level of narcissism that one of your best friends is displaying. She actually wants to blame you for being the victim!

"So that's it then! Use your new boy-toy and then wipe my memory with some curse?" you yell at your red faced classmate. "Don't you feel any guilt at all about what you did?!"

For just a second, Hermione stares at you with her mouth hanging open as if she can't believe what you'd just said. "Erase your memory? What the hell are you talking about, Harry?" she practically roars at last.

And in that moment, everything become clear. You are the biggest fucking git in the world. Your tombstone will read: The Boy That Lived to Become The Worlds Biggest Git While His Body Shrunk Away to Nothing At All! You've known Hermione for years now and, possible relationship with Ron aside, you've gotten pretty good at reading most of her expressions. She really and truly has no idea what the hell you're accusing her of. And while you're also not entirely sure what she's talking about either; it's pretty clear to you that you're NOT talking about the same thing.

The brief image of you pulling a Dobby right there on that lovely stone floor again flitters through you mind as a good idea. Maybe you should give Dobby a little more slack next time.

"I... don't know!" you scream back the answer to Hermione's question; the anger completely draining from your voice. You hadn't actually meant to scream but couldn't seem to reign yourself back in time.

You watch as Hermione opens her mouth to give a scathing reply before your answer has fully processed resulting in her sort of mouthing a few words as the anger on her face is quickly replaced by surprise and then confusion.

"We're... not talking about the same thing, are we?" she yells at you.

"Apparently not!" you yell back.

"Are we really fighting?" she yells.

"I don't think so!" you yell.

"Then why are we still yelling?" she yells again.

"I don't know!" you yell right back.

For several seconds you stand staring hard at the other; each trying to catch your breath. Finally, the ridiculousness of the situation proves too much and you fail to suppress a quick snort of laughter. A moment later, Hermione barely manages to restrain a laugh herself. Within seconds you're each reduced to a helpless fit of laughter.

"Really now, Harry,"Hermione begins at last, reassuming her more typical motherly nagging tone, "if we're not fighting about what just happened in the bath; then what are we arguing about."

"I...," you begin awkwardly as you search for the RIGHT words this time. "I kind of... thought that you were casting curses on me." Given your argument you don't feel like you can share that you thought she had possibly **** you as well.

"Curse you..." she echoes in a strange tone.

"Well..." you reply as you feel your face grow red under her gaze, "yeah. See, I had this--"

"Well I think that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Hermione interrupts. You're so surprised by the interruption that it actually takes a moment to register that she seems to be angry again.

Great, just what you needed. With a deep breath you try to head off a new argument before it starts, "I know. I--"

"So I suppose I'm the one responsible for your shrinking disease too?," she spits out as her volume begins to rise.

What?! Where had she gotten that from your statements? You must have bothered her more than you realized. "No. I don't--"

You're interrupted this time, not by Hermione yelling something but by her actually advancing on you. Within moments she has crossed the room and with a quick jab to your chest, she knocks you onto your back on her bed. Before you can register anything more than surprise a finger twice as long as any of yours plants itself on your chest, holding you down.

"Because that's just stupid," she barks down at you, "Do you hear me? Stupid. And mean! And just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG! I didn't do it. And I certainly don't have the antidote hidden somewhere! So don't you go telling Dumbledore or anybody else something like that or you will regret it for the rest of your SHORT life!"

"Whoa!" you cry out in absolute shock, "I didn't think anything like that!" You hadn't thought anything of the sort; but even if you had, you're ready to agree to just about anything to keep Hermione from beating the living snot out of you. Where had all that anger come from?

"You didn't?" Hermione asked, clearly unconvinced.

"No ma'am," you reply quickly.

For just a moment you almost think you see the twitch of a smile or Hermione's face at your subservient tone but it disappears so quick that you aren't sure if you really saw it or not. "Oh," she says sheepishly as she finally removes her finger from your chest. "Because that would really have been silly, Harry," she finishes; scrunching up her nose as she says 'silly' in a way that would have been adorably cute just 10 minutes ago.

'I really just don't get women,' you think in surrender. "So," you begin hesitantly, afraid to set her off again, "so we're alright then?"

"Well, almost," she says with a slight laugh as she reaches forward and grabs the front of your robes and hoists you easily into the air. Within moments she's carried you into the middle of her bed and you find yourself plopped onto your back with Hermione on all fours above you. :::::gulp:::::

"Wait," you gasp, caught off guard by her directness. Maybe you should have mentioned the possible **** after all. "I don't know if this is a good idea, Hermione."

For just a moment you see two opposing forces fighting for dominance before she finally sighs in defeat. "Harry," she begins in full lecture mode as she sits back to give you a little more air, "after you accused me of something like that and got me so upset... uh... about you... don't you think you owe me a little something to help me calm down?"

Well, you did get her upset; but something feels wrong. Frantically you rack your brain for a way out. Hermione is gorgeous and you'd love to spend more time exploring that amazingly hot body of hers; but you can't shake the feeling that somehow, you're trapped and you don't like it. "But, but what about you and Ro--"

"Don't you trust me, Harry?" she interrupts as sweetly as you've ever heard her while simultaneously giving you the biggest puppy-dog eyes you've ever seen. Yup, trapped. :::::sigh:::::

"Yes, Hermione," you say at last.

"Good," she breaths as she starts to reach reach down to remove her robes, "and if I'm too rough you can tell me about it later."

Well that's good... wait... Later?

Looks like it's time for...