The Sortinghat's Mission

Chapter 36

He was having a lovely dream, a rather usual one to be honest. He was kissing Hermione, and it soon led to them tumbling around in the bed together. Not having seen her body wholly naked made the details somewhat blurry, but he had a good imagination. He was just about to enter her soft, wet folds as he stirred awake by movement beside him. His eyes flew open in an instance, searching for the intruder. Finding Hermione big, brown eyes trained at him, he relaxed. She looked guilty as charged, freezed in a movement of trying to get up from the sofa.

"Sneaking off are we, Bernard?" he teased while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Oh, er, no, of course not, I was just..." she started awkwardly while not meeting his eyes.

"Sneaking back to your room?" he interrupted, sneering at her.

It was obvious what she had been about to do, the question was why. She looked around the room, caressing her own arm to soothe herself. He stretched his body before glancing back at her.

"So..."

"So..." she said in a low voice, abandoning her arm to play with a string of her hair instead.

A small smile tugged in the corner of his lips, pleased with knowing what sort of affect he had on her.

"What's on the agenda for today then?" he asked, looking at her expectantly.

He watched her gulp down a big portion of saliva, clearly at war with her own brain from the amount of time it took before she answered.

"Er, well. I'll go for a swim in the lake and then visit Tinky in the kitchens for breakfast. Then I'll probably go to the library."

She was still playing with her hair, glancing anywhere but at him. Has she always been this cute?

"Great, I'll get my swimming wear."

Tom jumped up from the sofa and began walking towards his room without waiting for her response. He thought he heard her mumble something, but it was inaudible.

While in his room he quickly changed into his yellow swimming trunks, pulled over a white t-shirt and his khaki-shorts. He glanced in the mirror, fixing his hair so it laid perfectly once more, before shooting himself a wink. It was a long time since he felt this confident.

Walking out of his room, he stopped just by the entrance of their common room. Hermione walked down and they made eye contact briefly before she blushed hard and averted her eyes down to the floor. Tom smiled cockily. She walked passed him and muttered:

"Let's go then..."

Still with the smile plastered on his lips, he opened the door for her and waited until she had walked out before following her. The walk down to the lake was peaceful. He enjoyed being out on the grounds this early, accompanied only by the sounds of birds and wind.

As they made it to the shore they undressed in silence. Glancing at the petite witch next to him he could tell that she still felt somewhat awkward, if the blush was anything to go by. She made her way out into the water and he followed, sensing he was the one to break the silence.

"I don't think I've ever swimmed here before..." he said happily.

Way to go, Tom. That was really something. She must think you're really intelligent.

"Oh?"

He watched her take a few strokes out into the water, careful not to let her hair get wet.

"I usually sit by the oak tree, watching people." he continued, never letting her out of his sight.