Snogs Galore!

Chapter Nine

Four sets of eyes turned to face the lithe blonde girl, then swiftly shifted to the furious red haired boy holding her hand.

"Malfoy! Why are you holding my sister's hand?" Ron whispered menacingly.

Draco glared pointedly at Ron's hand holding onto Pansy's before replying with rancor.

"I don't believe it is any of your business, what I do with your sister."

Ginny pulled her hand from Draco's grasp. "Do not provoke him."

She faced her brother and raised her eyebrows. "Although, he has a point. Would you like me to ask you about your current, um... relationship?"

Pansy held onto Ron's hand in order to keep him from attacking the blonde Slytherin. She shot Ginny a venomous look, which Ginny returned with equal malice.

The tension in the library was palatable. Hermione stood up and walked over to Ron.

"Come on and have a seat; we need to get busy with this research. You two can fight about each other's love lives later."

Ron's face drained of its color. "Love life?" he stammered while looking between his sister and the Slytherin git.

Draco scooted his chair closer to Ginny's and put his arm around her shoulders.

Ginny elbowed him in the side. "Don't, or else you'll be taking that evening walk by yourself," she hissed in his ear.

Ron's face turned red, but he took a seat across the table and pulled Pansy down beside him.

Hermione walked to the head of the table and placed her hands on its aged surface.

"Has anybody found out any new information about the arrows?"

Pansy stiffened. She hadn't known what they were meeting about, or else she wouldn't have come.

Hermione sighed as everyone shook his or her heads. "I hate to say it, but it seems as if Neville is our only hope."

She went back to her seat beside Blaise, ignoring the raised eyebrows as she leaned into him for support.

"You and Zabini?" Ron spluttered.

Before anyone could reply Harry stomped around the bookcase and stopped short upon seeing the bizarre assortment of couples.

As he stood there mouth agape, someone bumped into him from behind. He was hesitant to turn around. The jolt of awareness and arousal that shot through him could have been caused by one of two people. With a quick prayer he slowly turned. Relief poured through him as he saw Luna's sad blue eyes.

"Luna," he whispered, reaching up with his hand to stroke her cheek.

"Harry," she shyly smiled back, tentatively touching his hand with hers.

A snigger from Draco broke the moment. Harry stepped back, remembering his agreement with Neville.

Luna blushed prettily and quickly took the empty seat next to Ginny.

Harry sat beside Hermione, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

Neville broke the uncomfortable silence of the library as he approached the table waving a piece of paper.

"Hermione! I remembered some of the symbols."

His smile was infectious; Hermione couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Great Neville, let's see it."

She took the paper and smoothed out the crinkles from Neville's enthusiastic grip.

Blaise laid his chin on her shoulder and scanned the writing. "It looks Greek to me," he said, his breath tickling her ear.

"Now is not the time for your brand of humor," Hermione mumbled, swatting his hand that had been inching its way up her leg under the table.

His low chuckle vibrated against her back.

"My grandfather was Greek. This writing is very similar."

He reached around her, brushing the side of her breast, while pointing to one of the symbols.

"This bears a striking resemblance to a 'T'," Blaise said.

Hermione handed him the paper, taking away any excuse for him to touch her.

"Can you decipher any of the rest?" Harry asked.

"Nothing else looks too familiar." Blaise handed the paper to Harry.

Harry's eyes scanned the marks of ink, turning the paper this way and that, trying to make some sense of it.

Ginny giggled from the other side of the table.

Everyone's eyes turned to catch Draco whispering something into her ear.

Ron shot out of his chair and went sailing across the table. His hands were reaching out to grab Draco by the robes. Before he even made contact with the annoying prat, Ginny had stood up and pulled her wand to use a blocking spell on her brother.

Ron encountered an invisible wall, which stopped his attack as he crashed onto the table. He scrambled off and made his way around it. Harry stood up and put himself in between the two boys.

"Ron, mate, get a hold of yourself. This is no place for a fight." Harry struggled to hold the tall redhead back.

Pansy walked forward and placed a small hand on Ron's arm. "This is no way to deal with him. You're just playing into his hands."

The sound of her voice calmed him down. His gaze was drawn to her blue eyes. She smiled up at him and pulled him back to his chair.

Ginny slowly sat back down, wand still in hand, aghast at what she had just witnessed.

Draco started to make a snide comment, but Ginny quickly clamped her hand over his mouth.

"Do not tempt me to finish what he started," she whispered menacingly looking into his eyes.

Draco slowly ran his tongue over the seams of her fingers, before managing to nip at her palm.

Ginny's eyes grew wide as she fidgeted in her chair. The smoldering look he was giving her, accompanied by the feel of his mouth was making it awfully warm in the library.

"Are we all done now?" Hermione arched an eyebrow at the assemblage.

Draco pulled Ginny's hand down into his lap. "Yes, I'm done, for now."

"Okay then, it seems we need to concentrate on Grecian artifacts, and someone needs to research the Greek language and anything that might be similar."

Luna spoke up, "I'll look into the Grecian artifacts. My dad has a lot of information about the lifestyles of the Greek gods."

Blaise opened his mouth to question Luna, but Hermione stopped him with a shake of her head.

"I'll help you Luna," Neville and Harry said at the same time.

Both boys glared at each other across the table.

Everyone watched the hostility with interest.

Ginny cleared her throat to break the silence and take attention away from her best friend. "So that leaves Blaise and Hermione to translate the symbols. Draco and I will be going now; we've something important to do." Ginny's hand was traveling up Draco's thigh under the table.

"Wait a minute; if Blaise and I are interpreting and Luna, Harry and Neville are researching Greece, what are you four going to do?" She looked at Ginny and Draco then to Ron and Pansy.

Pansy raised her eyebrows at the bushy haired girl. "Why is it you think I should be included in this project of yours?"

Hermione scowled at the Slytherin girl. "You don't have to help, but seeing how Ron was struck by one of these arrows, he does."

Ron looked at Pansy and gave her a pleading look. "Please Pans, I don't want to start...growing things," he gulped.

Pansy sighed; why did he have to look so appealing? "Okay Ron, I'll help, for you." Besides, Pansy thought, I could make sure they never find out.

Hermione smiled and glanced over at Ginny and Draco.

Ginny was dumbfounded by the interaction she had just witnessed between her brother and Pansy. So much so that she didn't realize her hand was clenching Draco's thigh most painfully.

"Bloody Hell, Gin," Draco whispered in her ear, "I'd like to be able to use that later." He was prying her fingers off of his leg.

She looked down at her hand and blushed. "Crikey, luv, I'm sorry."

"Quite all right, you can kiss it and make it better," Draco said while waggling his eyebrows at her.

"Did you just call him, luv?!" Ron growled.

Ginny stood up, pulling Draco with her. "Hermione, I think everything would go much smoother if Draco and I weren't around."

With a smile at everyone, and a scowl at her brother she turned to face Draco.

"C'mon luv, let's take that walk."

She then proceeded to pull his head down to hers. Placing her hand on his chest for balance, she reached up and captured his lips in a soft kiss.

Draco's hands went behind her back and settled on her waist, but he kept one eye on her brother.

Pansy was doing her best to keep Ron in his chair, and Harry was standing between the snogging couple and the redhead.

"Um...Ginny, unless you want Ron's brain to explode, you really should get out of here," Harry said while holding his best mate at bay. "Fast," he said with more urgency, as Ron almost broke free.

Ginny broke the kiss, with a dreamy smile on her face. She turned to look at her brother.

Ron had stopped struggling when he saw the lovelorn expression on his baby sister's face. His anger was quickly replaced with dread as she stalked over to him.

She poked her finger in Ron's chest and whispered menacingly, "Get over it, Ron. Leave Draco alone, or else..." Her glance strayed to Pansy sitting at the table. "Or else, I'll tell your little girlfriend about the stack of Naughty Necromancers you have under your bed at home."

Ron gulped audibly and looked over his shoulder at Pansy with an awkward smile. Pansy returned the smile with a questioning look.

"You win, for now," Ron whispered angrily at his sister. He glared at Draco. "But if you step one toe out of line, you're mine!"

Draco just smirked at the angry boy as Ginny lead him out of the library.

Ron stood there glaring at him until he was out of sight.

"Okay, then, I'll go get my books from my room." Luna stood up.

Neville and Harry stood as well, giving each other calculating looks.

Hermione watched the two boys with amused interest. "For Merlin's sake, why don't both of you go with her?"

An angry, blushing Luna stormed out of the library, oblivious to the two boys following in her wake.

"So, now that you have me all to yourself, what will you do with me?" Blaise leaned over and whispered in Hermione's ear.

She jumped as his voice sent shivers down her back.

Turning with narrowed eyes she leaned forward. One slim finger trailed along his jaw, down his neck, and played with the top button of his oxford.

"What will I do with you? Hmmm..." She whispered seductively before running her tongue over her bottom lip.

Blaise gulped audibly. The feel of her finger toying with his shirt, the sight of her pink tongue and the sound of her husky low voice caused him to shift in his seat in order to accommodate his tightening trousers.

He closed his eyes to try and rein in his desire, only to have the breath knocked out of him as a large book was dropped in his lap.

He opened his eyes to see Hermione smirking at him.

"Look through this and find any alphabets similar to Greek. I'm going to make copies of Neville's scribbles."

She turned in her chair and picked up her quill, trying her best to hide a grin.

Blaise looked at her through narrowed eyes and mumbled, "Bloody tease."

Hermione ignored him and kept transcribing.

~~~*~~~*~~~

Outside of the Ravenclaw common room, Luna turned to face the two sullen boys following her. Looking back and forth between them, she opened her mouth to speak, then shut it.

"You two wait here, I'll be back in a minute," she sighed.

After the door shut behind her Neville turned on Harry.

"I thought we were going to both stay away from her?"

"I didn't see you volunteering to stay in the library either," Harry shouted back.

After learning from their earlier embarrassment, neither boy advanced on the other. Instead they argued from a safe distance until they heard the door opening.

Luna stepped out through the doorway with an arm full of books. She approached both boys.

"Harry, will you carry these for me?" She handed him half of her books and turned to Neville placing the rest in his arms.

"Let's go boys." She headed back to the library, without bothering to see if they were behind her.

~~~*~~~*~~~