Come On Harry

Chapter 2: Near the Quidditch Field

The night before Harry's third Potions test, he was trying to study in the common room but there was too much noise. He considered moving to the library, but he knew that Ron and Hermione were there and he definitely wouldn't be able to concentrate with them playing footsies.

Even if he was all alone in a completely silent room, Harry still wouldn't be able to concentrate. Ever since a few days ago when he saw Ginny in that black dress, he constantly fantasized about her. It became quite a hobby. Even Quidditch, which was usually Harry's escape, would not allow Harry to forget about Ginny, because she was a Chaser this year. She'd proved to be very skilled in the first couple practices when she had scored on her brother more than the other two Chasers combined. It was more than likely because she'd practiced with Ron that summer, Harry speculated, but she was talented all the same. And it was oh so distracting.

A few hours of imagining Ginny later, the common room had quieted down and there were only a few people left reading or whispering. Eventually, Harry heard Ron and Hermione enter through the portrait hole.

"Harry!" Ron called. Harry looked towards his best friend, held up his Potions book and gave a sarcastic grin. "Oh, yeah, I just finished doing that," Ron said.

"Don't let us distract you, Harry," Hermione added quickly. "I'm glad to see you studying. I really wish Ron would follow your example more." Ron started to mumble, so she added, "All right, you studied tonight, but it was a first. All you're concerned about anymore is Quidditch, and just because you're the bloody team captain this year doesn't mean that you can blow off all your studying, Ronald. In fact - " Ron pushed her to the other side of the room, where Harry could hear them whispering. Ron's expression turned into something Harry had never seen before. He grabbed Hermione's chin and brought it towards his mouth.

Harry closed his eyes. When he opened them a few seconds later, he saw Ron kissing Hermione's neck while pinning her against the wall. Her eyes were closed and her mouth open and Harry thought she looked like she was in another world entirely. Meanwhile, Ron was sweating and kissing, and appeared to be completely overcome by passion. His two best friends looked more attractive than Harry had ever seen them.

He tried to return his concentration to his potions book, but couldn't help taking a look every now and then back towards the dark corner of the room to see what exactly they were doing to one another.

After a minute or two, Harry looked back and they were gone.

He had been alone in the common room a couple hours before finally closing his book. He didn't think he'd learned a single thing from all his studying, so he left out a frustrated sigh as he started walking towards the boy's dormitories.

Suddenly he heard a noise and turned around. "Harry," a soft voice whispered. Hermione came into the light, her eyes shining nervously. "I saw you looking," she said. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I couldn't believe Ron. He's just uncontrollable sometimes."

Uncontrollable in that sense was not something Harry had ever though of Ron as before. "It's really okay, Hermione. You stayed awake this entire time to tell me that?"

From the light, he watched as Hermione grew more flushed. "I...er...yeah."

"You didn't have to, you know." He smiled weakly.

Stepping forward, she said determinedly, "Yes, but, Harry, I've just been so worried about you lately. You're distancing yourself quite a bit. At first I thought it was just because you wanted to study, but I realized that was wishful thinking, and I know you better. And Ron's been confirming this all. You're a lot quieter. I understand you've got a lot to think about... and now this whole thing with Ron and I...well, whatever it is, we're your best friends. And you can talk to us. Well, maybe not Ron, because he's an insensitive git, but you can always talk to me, because I really understand what you must be going through, Harry, and it's always tough - "

Harry didn't have to stop himself before he pushed his body down and landed onto Hermione's lips. To his surprise she didn't push him away. She just didn't move at all. Eventually Harry pulled back to see her looking quite rigid, her eyes wide with shock.

There was no spark in the kiss. "I just wanted to shut you up," he said, smiling, as he walked up the boys' dormitories. "Good night." She stood there, still unmoved and silent, so it seemed that he had accomplished his goal.

***

Harry did horribly on his Potions test, but he hadn't expected otherwise. Malfoy was the first one done with the written section, and he made a great point of advertising it by coughing while walking around the classroom. He spent a great deal of time hunched over Harry's shoulder, too. Snape was too busy trying to catch students cheating to care what Malfoy was doing, not that he'd care if Malfoy was bothering Harry, anyway.

"How could you be so stupid, Potter? You haven't got any questions right," Malfoy sneered, looking at Harry's paper.

"Shut up, Malfoy. I know you're just trying to trick me," Harry replied, turning around to look up at the blonde boy.

Suddenly Snape stood up and shouted, "Potter! Are you asking Malfoy for the answers?"

"Er..."

"Just because Malfoy is my best student," Snape continued while Malfoy smiled obnoxiously, "does not mean that you can exploit his talent."

"I was not asking Malfoy for the answers, Sir." Harry decided not to mention that it was in fact Malfoy who had been bothering him because he knew Snape wouldn't care.

"Lying is horrible for your complexion, Potter. Twenty points from Gryffindor."

With Malfoy's irritating laugh ringing in his ears, Harry grudgingly turned in the test without going back to check his work.

***

After all his classes had finished, Harry didn't even bother going to dinner. Instead he went up to Gryffindor tower to sleep. When he woke up, he found that Ron was already in bed. He looked at his clock. It read 3:27 AM in neon green letters. He wasn't tired at all. In fact, he had the strangest urge to take a walk.

He lit the fireplace in the common room and sat down on the couch, wondering what Ginny might be dreaming about. It had been less than five minutes since he'd gotten up, when someone entered through the portrait hole. The person tried to creep by without being noticed, but Harry called, "Who's there?"

When she came into the light of the fire, Harry recognized her. There was a look of defeat on her face. "You won't tell Ron, will you?"

Her hair was ringed in wet tendrils down the sides of her face. She was sweating, and it looked as if she'd just had some sort of a workout, but he doubted that she'd been out on the Quidditch field wearing the tightly fitting blue dress she had on now. All the same, she was glowing and looked dazzling, and again Harry was unable to stop his eyes from roaming. "Ginny...what were you doing?"

"I...I can't tell you, Harry. You'd absolutely despise me."

"No," he urged, moving closer to her. "Trust me, I wouldn't." He wanted to kiss her, and in his mind that was all he could think about. Kiss her, kiss her, you thickheaded fool. But he didn't.

She turned her head away very suddenly, her silver necklace dangling elegantly from her neck. "Er...it's okay, Harry. It's not something I can really say."

The extreme disappointment was evident in his face. "Alright," he said. "But I won't tell Ron, don't worry."

"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me." Without another word or gesture, she climbed towards the girls dormitories. Harry realized that she'd been so distracted this time, she hadn't even bothered to ask Harry what he'd been doing up so late, either.

***

"Ginny's been awfully secretive lately," Hermione told him and Ron during breakfast the next morning. "Do you think she has another boyfriend, Ron?"

"Probably," the redhead answered while stuffing his mouth. "All the boys fancy Ginny now. If I could, I'd hex every one of them." Harry's heart sank.

"But she usually tells me who it is," Hermione continued, ignoring Ron and leaning forward towards Harry with expressive eyebrows. "And this time she's being extra secretive."

"She must like him a lot, then," Ron mused.

"Yes, but, Ron, she and I tell each other everything."

He looked at her angrily for a second. "I noticed!"

Ignoring Ron again, Hermione suggested, "Maybe she's just studying extra hard. She's getting some of the highest scores in her year, you know. You two should be very proud of her. I know I am." She paused to observe Harry slowly pick at his food. "You don't look very well, Harry."

Looking up, he said sarcastically, "Thanks."

"I didn't mean it that way," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Maybe you should go see Madame Pomfrey. I heard there's a flu going around."

He looked into her dark brown eyes. "I feel fine, Hermione." He smiled and Hermione was suddenly reminded of their kiss.

She glanced over at Ron, who was again too involved in his meal to notice a thing, and then back at Harry, who had bowed his head down. She noted that if it was any lower, he'd have syrup in his hair. "Okay," she said slowly. "Well, I'd best be off. See you both later." Giving them her most charming smile, though neither was looking, she walked out.

"I still can't believe she told Ginny," Ron muttered angrily. "I can't even look at Ginny now without feeling guilty as bloody hell. I'm a bad example for her, you know. All the boys like her now, and because of me, she'll probably be going around with every single one. I can't have my sister be the school...whore, you know."

Harry interrupted, "Your sister is not a whore, Ron."

"I know, I know," he continued. "These boys, though... they all want just one thing, really." Harry couldn't help but feeling guilty, knowing he was one of them. "I'm sure you know what I mean though, Harry. She's practically your sister, too."

Harry choked. "...Yeah," he managed.

"I'll hex him into oblivion, whoever he is," Ron said compellingly.

Decidedly, Harry agreed, "Me too."

***

The next morning, Ron and Harry went down to the library to look for Hermione. They found her studying as usual with her nose pressed against the inside of a large book.

Harry opened up his History of Magic textbook to study, when Parvati Patil, tall dark and slender, came over and put a hand on his shoulder. The hem of her skirt was significantly higher up on her thighs than Hermione's ever was, and her white blouse was only buttoned up halfway.

When he felt the weight on his shoulder, Harry looked up, surprised, and gave a coy smile when he recognized her.

"Good morning, Harry," she said seductively while trying desperately not to break eye contact with him. "I hope you're doing well."

"Yes, I am, thanks," he managed without his voice cracking.

Parvati slid her hand from his shoulder down the front of his collared shirt. He let out a surprised yelp. Ignoring it, she continued, "Oh good. I'm so longing to watch you catch the snitch next Friday."

Harry gulped and tried not to look awkward as Parvati's hand remained inside his shirt, her fingertips gracing his skin slowly. He was too shocked to say a thing and after a moment of silence, she drew her hand back and walked away with an annoyed expression.

Ron's mouth was hanging open, but Hermione looked unimpressed. "Honestly. Just because her sister is Head Girl this year, she thinks she can get away with anything," Hermione started, steaming in the direction Parvati had just walked off in. "If only she knew what an idiot she looked like... groping you, in the library, for Merlin's sake! Insufferable wench."

"I beg to differ," Harry whispered with his eyes still unfocused.

Ron snorted. "You're only jealous because you wanted to be Head Girl. Admit it, Hermione."

She raised her head with grace and said calmly, "Yes, I wanted to be Head Girl. I would have made a fine Head Girl. I am a great deal more sensible than Padma Patil, I can tell you that."

"Well, I know Terry Boot is more sensible than I am, so I agree with Dumbledore's decision on that one," Ron replied, chuckling a bit. "Besides, I'm still a prefect and Gryffindor's Quidditch team captain!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, if only you'd shut up about that already." Ron dramatically picked up a Quidditch magazine and started leafing through. As if being reminded of something, Hermione suddenly said, "Come on, Harry. I want to show you a book back there." She pointed to the back of the library, and Harry complied hesitantly.

When they were in the back of the stacks, Hermione started twiddling her thumbs silently. A thousands thoughts were in Harry's mind at once. "Look, Hermione, if this is about what happened a few nights ago, I just want to say right off - "

"Ginny wasn't in the girls' dormitories all night last night. I was waiting for her... and she just didn't come. This morning at breakfast was the first time I saw her." Harry's mouth opened wide. "Do you know where she could've gone?"

"She was probably shagging someone who's not me..." Harry mumbled under his breath.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"Nothing. I don't know." He had a sour look on his face. "I think your hunch about her having a boyfriend is right."

"I don't think so," she replied, her hands on her hips. "She would've told me."

"Good!" He exclaimed and hugged Hermione lightly.

Shifting her weight to her right leg, she looked at her best friend craftily. "Harry... do you like Ginny?"

"No, of course not," he lied. "She's like a sister to me." He suddenly wondered if being with Ginny would be considered incest.

"Don't tell Ron about this, though," Hermione warned. "I don't want him to get too worried. You know how overprotective he gets."

Harry couldn't keep track of all the secrets he had to keep. "Okay," he said, feeling a little dizzy. He went back to his History of Magic textbook and looked over some terms he needed to know for the quiz.

***

The next week, things with Ginny had quieted down a bit. Hermione stopped telling Harry about her night absences (she told him about it a few times after the first), and Harry stopped running into Ginny while she was wearing revealing dresses. In fact, Harry barely saw Ginny at all except during practice. He had even cut down the number of times per day he fantasized about her. All in all, things were going a little better for Harry in terms of studying time and sleep.

For this, he decided to reward himself by studying outside near the Quidditch field instead of the cramped library. He sat down on the steps near a small alleyway. It was completely silent and all he could hear were the birds.

...and the bees. "More, please," Harry suddenly heard. "Oh, come on..." a soft girl's voice moaned. "Don't tease." The voice was coming from around the corner.

And a deep voice answered, "Oh, you're so hot, baby." Harry perked up. It sounded like Malfoy. "Hike up your skirt. Yeah, like that." He heard a few more moans. Harry gasped; he could not believe what he was hearing. Of course Harry knew that Malfoy was popular with the ladies, but he didn't think he'd be having sex with one right here in the middle of the day.

"Draco...oh, this is incredible," the girl said between moans. He wondered who it was.

All Harry could hear now was rough breathing. He wanted to leave, but his feet were planted onto the ground. The breathing stopped after a few minutes and Harry heard Malfoy say, "I never knew that all this secrecy would give me such a rush."

"I told you, you stubborn prat," the girl joked, and Harry suddenly realized that her voice sounded very familiar. In fact, it was....

"Ginny, you unbelievably sexy wench, I'll see you tonight, okay?" Harry heard a soft sucking noise.

"Bye, Draco," Ginny replied. Harry ran as fast as he could so she wouldn't see him. He hid behind a tree, and held his breath, not knowing he could run so fast. He watched Ginny adjust her dress as she walked by, into the castle.

Malfoy stood still, watching her walk away. He smiled intensely. "Bloody well fit," he exclaimed to himself. His cheeks were flushed a bit, his hair was in stringy blonde strands in front of his eyes, and he looked tired, but Harry realized that he was still incredibly good looking all the same.

He wanted to go back into the castle, but Malfoy kept standing there, and if he moved now, Malfoy would know that he'd heard it all. And if he didn't, he'd probably figure it out from the look on Harry's face.

But finally Malfoy walked away into the Quidditch field. Harry ran into the castle, carefully so that the other boy wouldn't spot him. As he walked up the stairs to Gryffindor tower, he couldn't believe that he was still standing; he felt like he was going to faint. Ginny and Malfoy! It was so ridiculous that he couldn't even comprehend it.

Entering the common room, Harry found Ginny curled up next to Hermione on the couch. He slowly approached them, not being able to look Ginny in the eye. "Hey, Harry," Ginny said, without even the tiniest bit of guilt. How can she manage that?, thought Harry, who felt guilty about even overhearing it. "Are you ready for the match tomorrow?"

"Yuh - yeah. I s'pose."

"Something wrong, Harry? You look as if you've seen a ghost," Hermione said, suddenly realizing that this wasn't so uncommon around Hogwarts. "I mean...you know what I mean."

"No, I'm totally fine. How are you guys? ...girls." He pushed up his glasses with the tip of his index finger and tried to act normally, but his palms were suddenly sweating and his glasses slipped back down again defiantly.

Ginny leaned on Hermione's shoulder. "Great," she said, smiling. Hermione smiled as well. Harry doubted that Ginny had told Hermione anything, otherwise she would not be smiling like that.

Ron came down from the boys' dormitories with a certain determined look. Scratching the back of his neck routinely, he looked Hermione in the eye with a slight red twinge in his cheeks. "Er... Hermione, did you want to show me that... er, homework problem? I mean, that thing, you know, that you were going to show me. Yeah."

She smiled at him and stood up. "Yeah, sure," she said in a low voice, biting her lip.

Harry immediately took her place on the couch, next to Ginny. He looked back at Hermione as she led Ron up to the girls' dormitories with a cheeky grin on her face. He looked back towards Ginny. "Well, that was so blatantly obvious; I wonder I never noticed when they did it before." His palms had stopped sweating.

"Honestly," Ginny replied, placing her arm on the back of the couch, and then resting her head on top of it.

"I wonder what they're going to do," he said dully.

"I'm sure you know," she said softly.

"Well, so do you. Quite well, I'm sure," Harry answered, in a slightly nasty tone.

"What does that mean?" She slid a bit further away from him.

"Nothing, sorry." He paused. "No, wait, I'm not."

"Well, which is it, then?" She crossed her arms and legs. She's so skinny, Harry thought to himself. I could just snap her in two with no more than 10 Newtons of force.

"I want to tell you something," he said suddenly, surprising himself.

Ginny waited, but he didn't continue. "Yes?" she finally asked.

He was contemplating what he wanted to tell her. "Never mind. I am sorry. That was rude of me. But I just need some time to think first."

"About what?" He didn't answer. "Come on, Harry. You can tell me anything."

"Well you never do," he shouted, suddenly angry again.

Ginny looked down. "I know. It's just...I couldn't." Now Harry knew why.

"I understand. I just would have liked it if you had told me. Instead of - " Harry stopped himself before he said anything else.

"Instead of what?" Ginny cried, worried that he knew something.

He paused until he thought of an answer. "Instead of me having to imagine it."

She looked a little surprised. "Well...what did you imagine then, Harry?"

What's under your skirt. "All the boys you must be dating," he said. "All the boys that aren't me."

For the first time that evening, Ginny's face had a streak of guilt in it. "It's true, I am dating someone. But...just one boy. Don't think I go from boy to boy. You don't think that, do you? Does Ron?"

"No, I don't. And I don't know what Ron thinks."

Ginny looked up. "Thank you," she replied, patting Harry's shoulder.

Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. She looked at him, completely stunned. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but he wasn't really in control of his body. He knew he wanted to kiss her, so he stared at her lips, his heart pulsing quickly, but he didn't move any closer.

"Harry, you're hurting my hand," she said, softly. Reluctantly, he let go.

"Sorry," he said in a defeated voice. Her eyes asked for an explanation for his odd behavior, but he gave her none. "I just hope you're careful," he said, staring back at her. "I know there are all sorts of bad guys out there." Ginny gulped.

***

The next night, Harry found himself near the Quidditch field again, in the exact spot where he'd heard... them. This time however, he was wearing all his Quidditch gear and heading out to the field where he could see Ron already giving out orders to the rest of the team.

Everyone who knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione were best friends was surprised that the two Gryffindor boys would choose to spend so much time with a girl as completely disinterested in Quidditch as Hermione was. Harry was the star player of the school, and Ron's life was devoted to Quidditch. "He's the new Oliver Wood," Professor McGonagall had said regarding Ron after the first practice of the year.

"Harry, where have you been? We were supposed to start warm ups nearly half an hour ago. You can't just show up whenever you feel like it," Ron yelled once Harry was in sight.

Harry shrugged in response.

"Well you better warm up quickly; the game's in ten minutes."

Harry kneeled down to the old wooden box by Ron's feet and released the snitch from it. The tiny golden ball immediately flew out of sight. "I won't let you down," Harry reassured his best friend and captain as he mounted his broom and pushed off the ground.

Ron sighed and whispered to himself, "You never do."

Once in the air, Harry narrowed his eyes in order to find the snitch. But instead Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, the two Beaters, came riding up to him. "Potter!" Sloper called. "Glad to see you decided to show up."

"Yeah," Kirke added. "Worried us all, ya did. 'Specially Ginny."

Harry eyes widened. "Really?"

It might have been Harry's wide smile or his dreamy look that caused Kirke to move closer to Harry and warn, "Careful, Harry. Sloper's all for Ginny; you wouldn't wanna make him jealous now, would ya?"

In response Harry sneered, "If he likes her, then trust me, he's got a lot more competition than just me."

"We're all on the same team, Potter," answered Kirke, slapping Harry on the back lightheartedly and zipping away to go catch up with Sloper.

Harry spent the next five minutes riding around the field in search of snitch. However, Madame Hooch blew the whistle before he could find it. As he reached the ground, he saw all the balls, including the snitch, fly back into the box.

"All right, team," Harry heard Ron say as he entered the circle of players around the redheaded captain. "This is our first game and we've been practicing hard. Just keep pushing yourself like we've been doing in practice. You all know what you're supposed to be doing. Kirke, Sloper, you two know your primary target, right? Don't underestimate Brocklehurst, either; she's a killer. And MacDonald, don't worry about driving, just watch for Ginny and Lavender to be open. Anyone have any questions? No? Good. Let's go."

Ron approached Michael Corner, the Ravenclaw's team captain and shook his hand briefly yet professionally. When Madame Hooch blew the whistle, everyone flew up into the air along with all the Quidditch balls.

Harry watched as Mandy Brocklehurst, an eager Ravenclaw Chaser, grabbed the Quaffle as quickly as she could. She headed straight for Ron, but had to swerve from her path to avoid a bludger. Ron yelled out "Good job" to club-bearing Sloper, who was looking very satisfied with himself.

The game progressed, and Harry had plenty of time to watch the stands and notice a gaggle of Gryffindors cheering him on. It seemed all at once then that he caught sight of the snitch. Within a second, he dove down and started to chase it. The Ravenclaw seeker was nowhere in sight, so Harry kept riding on until he was able to grasp it firmly in his right hand. It seemed too easy. But every game was now.

"And GRYFFINDOR WINS!" Harry heard yelled over the loudspeaker. He flew softly to the ground and was attacked by his team. Sloper picked him up for a second, and then he received hugs from both Lavender Brown and Natalie MacDonald.

Ginny waited for everyone else to leave before approaching him. "Good job, Harry," she said, softly, unsure of whether he would still act strangely towards her or not.

"You too. Nine goals in no more than half an hour. That's pretty impressive, especially with Morag McDougal as Keeper." He raised his eyebrows and she smiled.

Placing a gloved hand on his shoulder, she replied thoughtfully, "Thank you, Harry. That means a lot coming from you. I don't remember the last time you didn't catch the snitch."

"I do," Harry laughed, as the two of them walked back to the changing rooms. "But I think you and I need a bit more of a challenge. I suppose the game against Slytherin will do for that. What do you think?"

Ginny looked straight ahead. "A challenge, perhaps. But I think it'll be odd playing Slytherin this year."

"Why do you say that?"

Turning her head to the side to take him in, she smiled. "No reason."