Sweetest Sin

Chapter 10

They headed up to Gryffindor Tower and Ron said, "Hermione, will you show her the way up to her dormitory?"

Lily gave him a perplexed look. "You cannot show me?"

Ron flushed and said, "No, they have it jinxed, so guys can't go sneaking into the girl's dormitory."

Lily laughed. "Well, that's good to know!"

Ron grinned and Hermione said, "Come on, Lily, we can go collect your books, and then we'll head to class."

Harry and Ron headed to their dormitory to collect their books and Ron said, "This is such a great day, the thought of heading to Potions doesn't even faze me!"

Harry laughed and said, "Lily seems really nice, Ron, but I think you might have some competition, she's gorgeous and I think the guys are going to be after her!"

Ron shrugged. "Well, like you said, she IS beautiful, but hey, soon the word will get out and people will know we're together. Plus, I don't think she's going to run off and cheat on me."

Harry nodded and they headed back downstairs, where Hermione and Lily were already waiting. Ron looked at them and said, "Well, off to Potions then!"

Five minutes later they were seated in the dungeon classroom and Snape was taking attendance. He gave Lily a long stare. "I don't believe I know you."

She smiled at him. "This is my first day here at Hogwarts. My name is Lily Davis."

Snape did not return her smile. "And where are you transferring from?"

Lily was starting to look uncomfortable and Snape's cool tone and you could hear her voice faltering a little. "Beauxbatons Academy."

Snape gave her another stare and muttered, "Well I guess we'll see what you know. Everyone take your cauldrons out, turn to page fifty four, you have an hour."

They all set to work and Harry's potion wasn't looking quite right and he muttered, "Shit, this is wrong."

Hermione opened her mouth to correct him but Lily whispered, "You forgot the asphodel."

Hermione had a shocked look on her face but Harry didn't notice, he was quickly adding his missing ingredient. About five minutes later Lily said, "Finished!"

Harry gave her a surprised look and glanced about the room, no one else had finished, not even Hermione, who was always the first one done. Hermione didn't look up, she was staring into her cauldron, stirring quickly and about a minute later she said, "I'm finished too."

Ten minutes later, Snape was moving about the class, checking everyone's potions. He stirred Hermione's potion. "A bit runny, Miss Granger."

Hermione's face quickly filled with a flush and Snape moved along. He made no comments about Harry's or Ron's potions, and he stared into Lily's cauldron for a long moment before saying, "This potion is perfect, Miss Davis, extremely well done."

A few minutes later, Snape dismissed the class and Hermione quickly gathered her books and hurried from the room, leaving the others behind without a word. Harry looked at Ron and Lily but they didn't seem to notice so he left the room at a fast walk to catch up with Hermione. He finally caught up with her in the entrance hall and he grabbed her arm. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

Hermione kept walking, heading out the front door for Care of Magical Creatures. "Nothing's wrong, Harry, I just want to get to class."

Harry decided not to say anything more and they headed down the lawn towards Hagrid's hut. They were the first to arrive and Hagrid gave them a smile. "Well, hello you two! How are things?"

Harry smiled back and said, "Things are going great, Hagrid, sorry we haven't been down to visit you more often!"

Hagrid replied, "Ah, it's fine, I know you three have a busy year, I'm sure going to miss ya when you're gone."

Hermione smiled at Hagrid and then gave him a hug. "We'll keep in touch, Hagrid!"

Soon all the students had arrived and Hagrid walked to the front of the group, "All righ', I'm assuming everyone has finished their essays, you can turn those in at the end. Today we are going to be studying ursalinks, I want you to care for them, feed them, play with them, but be careful when handling them, sometimes they can get temperamental. Turn to page thirty seven for instructions on care and a little background on ursalinks. I'll be checking on different groups, you have an hour, come up here and get a crate with an ursalink for yer group."

Harry and Ron went to get a crate containing an ursalink and brought it back to Hermione and Lily. Hermione already was sitting on the ground with her book open and Lily said excitedly, "I don't think I've ever even heard of an ursalink before!"

Harry heard Hermione mutter under her breath, "Well that's a surprise."

Harry and Ron sat the crate down and Ron said to Hermione, "Should we be afraid?"

Hermione smiled. "Well, just be careful in handling it, if they don't like how they're being handled, they will bite you. But, the bites aren't poisonous or anything, just painful."

Harry squatted down next to the crate and slowly opened the top. Inside was an animal about the size of a cocker spaniel. The ursalink looked like a teddy bear; it had big dark brown eyes and was covered in short, light brown fur. Harry looked to Hermione. "How should I get it out?"

Hermione looked at her book. "I would say from what the books says you grab it behind its front legs, like you were picking up a puppy."

Harry tentatively reached into the crate and the animal looked at him warily. He grabbed it and quickly lifted it out of the crate. He gently placed it on the ground and the ursalink sat down. Harry stood back up and looked at it as Lily and Hermione both said, "Awww, how cute!"

Harry did have to admit that the ursalink was cute. Ron opened his textbook and said, "Well it looks like we need to feed it some meat, I guess we get that from Hagrid?"

Lily was listening intently to what Ron was saying and then she headed over to Hagrid and returned with some raw meat wrapped in brown paper. She knelt down next to the ursalink and ripped off a piece. "Do we just feed it to him like this?"

Ron nodded. "I think so..."

Hermione said nothing and Lily reached out her hand and the ursalink sniffed the meat in her hand. Suddenly, the ursalink nipped Lily's hand and she gave a small shriek and dropped the meat. The ursalink quickly ate the meat as blood dripped from Lily's hand. Ron quickly knelt down next to her and inspected her finger. "It doesn't look too deep; we can go see Madam Pomfrey after class, unless you feel like you need to go now."

Lily shook her head. "No, I'll be fine till after class."

Harry looked over at Hermione and he saw a satisfied smirk on her face. Hermione looked up at him and the smile quickly left her face, and a look of concern replaced it. Harry squatted back down next to Hermione and said, "You knew that thing was going to bite her didn't you?"

Hermione gave him a guilty look. "Well, I just wanted to see if she would be perfect at everything, guess it's just Potions though."

Harry brushed his fingers along her cheek. "Just can't handle some competition, can you?"

Hermione's face flushed and she focused on tearing off pieces of meat and placing them in front of the ursalink. The ursalink quickly ate all the pieces of meat and Harry headed over to Hagrid and said, "Hagrid, what do we need to play with the animal?"

Hagrid handed him a toy and replied, "Use this, play tug-of-war and things like that, there's only ten minutes left to class anyways, so you don't need to keep it occupied for very long."

Harry nodded and headed back over to the group. He sat down on the ground and held the toy out to the ursalink. It grabbed the toy with it's front paws and tugged on it. Harry grinned and pulled back on the toy. Ron came over and played with the ursalink and Harry and Hermione sat back and watched him. Lily was sitting off to the side; she seemed to have lost her desire to work with the animal.

A few minutes later, the class was over and Hermione lifted the ursalink back into the crate. Harry and Ron carried the crate back over and Hagrid announced, "We'll be working with the ursalinks for a few weeks, so I'll see ya next class!"

With that, he dismissed them and Ron said, "Hey guys want to walk to the hospital wing with Lily and I so she can mend her finger? Then we can go down to lunch together."

Hermione and Harry nodded and began walking up the lawn back towards the castle. Hermione reached over to take Harry's hand as they began working their way to the hospital wing. Once they reached their destination Madam Pomfrey sat Lily down on a bed and put some kind of liquid on the bite. Harry and Hermione sat on the bed across from Lily's as Ron stood next to her. Lily winced and the liquid smoked slightly on her skin and then Madam Pomfrey healed the cut. "How does that feel, Miss Davis?"

Lily offered a small smile. "Much better, thanks."

Madam Pomfrey looked at her finger one more time and then said that they were free to leave. They walked down to the Great Hall for lunch. Lily was inspecting her finger closely, frowning. They ate lunch quietly and since they had the rest of the day off, Hermione dragged Harry off to the library while Ron showed Lily around Hogwarts.

*Two hours later*

Harry yawned as he thumbed through a book in the library. Hermione had been studying for such a long time, and he had grown quite bored. He shut the book he was looking at and headed over to Hermione, who was sitting at a table. He came up behind her and rested his head on her shoulder, looking down at the book she was reading. He pulled gently on her shirt, exposing part of her shoulder. She looked over at him and he gently kissed her shoulder. "Come on, Hermione; let's head back to the common room or something."

Hermione smiled and shut the book she was reading. She gave Harry a quick kiss and then started shoving her books into her bag. She stood up and motioned for Harry to follow her. She started heading for the seventh floor and Harry grinned. Hermione was going to the Room of Requirement. They paced quickly back and forth in front of the door and Hermione walked over and put her hand on the doorknob. She looked up and began to kiss Harry and she opened the door. She backed into the room and stumbled a little bit, giggling as she broke the kiss. She looked up at Harry and saw his mouth hanging open in shock. Hermione heard someone moan and she quickly turned and struggled to stifle a gasp. Ron and Lily were having sex on a couch in the middle of the room.

Hermione was so shocked that she just kept staring for a moment. Ron and Lily hadn't heard them enter and Harry grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her from the room. Hermione's mouth was hanging open and Harry stared at her for a second. "Hermione, are you okay?"

Hermione nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm just....shocked I guess! And...and a little turned on." She mumbled out the last few words.

Harry's eyebrows shot up and all he could manage to say was, "Oh?"

Hermione just grinned mischievously and started kissing Harry again. She pulled back and said softly, "So, since the Room of Requirement is otherwise occupied, where are we going to go?"

Harry grabbed her hand and started leading her down the hallway. "I don't know, but we will DEFINITELY find some place!"