The Bet

"The Bet--Part Three--Fun For Two At Hogsmeade"

A fanfiction by: Kaci JaBeth

And so another day came and went at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. The sun was bright, the birds chirped happily, students basked in the glory of knowledge. And five certain Gryffindors had a lot of sex. Well, three of them did, anyway.

The totals had risen to almost unfathomable numbers in only a week. Already Dean, Seamus, and Ron had reached twenty or higher. Harry had finally bedded Cho and had a meager one. Neville, of course, had a pathetic zero.

"Don't worry, Nevy. Snape won't be too pissed when you have to have a tattoo on your forehead that says you're his bitch." Dean teased.

"Hey, in Neville's case, it'd be true! Merlin, the way he acts so scared around Snape, I'm beginning to think maybe he really is Snape's bitch," Seamus laughed.

"I AM NOT!" Neville yelled. "I just don't like greasy old gits."

"Whatever," Ron said, rolling his eyes. He was in second place and was feeling confident that he'd win. After all, Lavender and Katie had spread around the word that he was really good in bed, and now girls were throwing themselves at him. Dean was keeping up with Ron, in a close third. Seamus, however, had left them both behind. He was already in the thirties.

Harry kept quiet through most of these meetings. He didn't want anyone to know, but he'd given up on the bet. He was sleeping with Cho, sure, but he liked her so much that he asked her to be his girlfriend. Sleeping with anyone else now would be cheating. He'd already resigned himself to forever be known as one of Snape's Four Bitches. Why should he care what anyone else thought? He had Cho, and that was enough for him.

Tomorrow the students were headed for Hogsmeade. Harry and Cho had decided to stay at Hogwarts, since they might have some privacy. They'd even planned a nice evening in the Astronomy Tower. Harry couldn't wait. Too bad you couldn't count each girl more than once. If you could, he'd be beating even Seamus.

The boys all said good-night and drifted off into a sleep filled with dreams of winning the all-important bet.

Morning dawned and five Gryffindor boys rose grumpily and dressed for a day of fun, shopping, and sex. Harry left the room first and dashed off to find Cho. Neville got ready for a day of wining and dining Hermione. The other three boys got ready for a day of bad pick-up lines in the pub and good sex in the inn.

Breakfast came and went uneventfully, aside from the girlish giggles as various people who the Testosterone Trio had slept with already shared the stories. Seamus listened proudly as Justin shared a particularly fun experience they'd had in Hagrid's hut on Wednesday when Hagrid had taken his Care of Magical Creatures students into the Forbidden Forest on assignment. Ron smirked at Dean when he heard that Lavender was still talking about her experience with him even now, a week later. Dean returned the smirk when Parvati spoke up.

"Oh, that's nothing! You should've seen what Dean did to me!"

And so breakfast was quickly over and the students returned to their common rooms to gather their things for a day of fun in the sun at Hogsmeade. Upon entering the Gryffindor room, Neville spotted Hermione packing some things into a backpack. As he approached, he saw her do a shrinking spell on the sack and then stuff it into the pockets of her robes.

"Ready to go?" He said grinning, offering her his arm.

"Uh, sure, Neville." Hermione said, eyeing him.

"Good. I have a fun day planned for us."

"Really? What are we going to do?"

"Spend time together."

"I know that, Neville, but what will we do?"

"I dunno. Whatever you want to do. I don't really care, as long as I get to be with you."

Hermione blushed a deeper shade of crimson and took Neville's arm. They walked together out into the sun and headed for Hogsmeade.

-Scene Change-

After arriving, Hermione mentioned to Neville that she would like to go shopping in the bookstore. He smiled to himself and they walked to the shop. Upon entering, Hermione seemed to have just entered heaven. She ran from shelf to shelf gazing at all the tomes that lie about, just waiting for her to purchase them. She picked up a rather large book that said "101 Ways to Study for Your Apparation License". She showed it to Neville, excited.

"We should buy this, you know. We have to apply for our licenses soon."

"Yeah. Okay, I'll buy it for you."

"Oh, Neville, you don't have to do that."

"No, I want to. Think of it as like, flowers or candy that I'm supposed to have given you at the beginning of this date."

Hermione smiled and at last agreed to let Neville pay for half -only half- of the book. She smiled at him as they left the shop and headed towards the pub for some butterbeer.

Upon entering, they were happy to see that it was not very crowded. They took a table in the back corner and began to drink and chat.

"So, Neville. Um, why did you decide to ask me out?"

"Oh, I don't know, really. I mean, it's spring and all, and you know what they say. Love is in the air."

"I guess so."

"Besides. We're graduating in a few months. I wanted to let you know how I felt before then."

"How do you feel, Neville?"

"I...I like you. A lot. You're so smart, and pretty, and perfect, and..." Neville looked down at his mug, blushing.

Hermione smiled. Neville looked up at her as she leaned over and gently kissed him on the lips. She pulled away after a few seconds, and suddenly found a spot on the floor highly interesting.

"Hermione..."

Hermione looked up at him, blushing. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

Hermione smiled at him. After polishing off their mugs, they walked out into the bright spring sun once again, holding hands.

-Scene Change-

That evening, the Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Ron entered to find Harry lying on his bed, looking exhausted.

"Fun day?" Ron joked.

"Yeah. It's really too bad that we can't count each girl more than once."

"Sorry, Har, those are the rules," Dean pointed out.

"I know. But man, I think I'd be winning if we could."

The other four rolled their eyes.

"Okay, time for the totals!" Ron said happily. He took out the piece of parchment they were keeping score on and looked to Dean.

"Two."

"Okay, and Seamus?" Ron said, writing as he spoke.

"Three...had a bad day, I guess."

Ron laughed and marked the score. "Okay, and...four for me."

Ron then promptly collapsed back onto his bed. "Man, I'm exhausted."

"Me, too." The other three over-sexed boys added. Everyone glanced at Neville.

"Well, Nevy...how'd the date go? Did you finally get one?"

"No. But the date went well. We went shopping, then we went to the pub and had some butterbeer. And then, I took her to that fancy restaurant they just added. And I did get a kiss."

"Where?" Ron said warily.

"At the pub."

"No Neville, I meant...oh, never mind. I'm too exhausted," Ron said tiredly.

Five minutes later the other four boys had fallen asleep, but Neville was wide awake thinking about Hermione. He decided he needed to get some air, so he threw on his robe and headed down to the common room and sat by the fire. A few minutes later, Hermione came down.

"Oh, Neville. I wasn't expecting to see you this time of night."

"Me either, actually. I just...I couldn't sleep. Thought I'd come out here for awhile."

"Me, too," Hermione said, sitting down next to him.

Neville looked into her eyes and felt her leaning towards him.

He kissed her and before he knew what he was doing, he had picked her up and was carrying her towards the Astronomy Tower...