Contingent | D.M. + H.G.

Chapter 20: Intense

Harry looked at her, his eyes growing soft and his brow furrowing as he took in her slightly slumped posture. Reaching his arms out, he grabbed onto her shoulders. "I know," he said. "Seems like we need to figure out what the right thing is, yeah?' His lips quirked up into a smile.

He was taking this very well. She was almost suspicious, but at the same time she knew that that was just Harry. He had such a big heart, and while he was oftentimes quick to jump to conclusions, he could occasionally get something right.

Her expression grew solemn. "I know there's a lot you want to say, and questions you want to ask, and I promise we'll get there." She chewed on her lip, hesitating – hoping she wasn't about to burst the bubble. "But first... I need to ask you for a favor."

-

Why did she constantly get herself into these kinds of situations? Although, if she were being honest with herself, she was much less worried about Ron's reaction than she had been Harry's. She knew what to expect from Ron.

But nevertheless, she brought Harry along with her for support. And selfishly, to back her story up – even though she knew it was a cop out..

The conversation went relatively similar to how her talk with Harry went. Although she'd had to explain the whole backstory as to how she'd fallen for Malfoy in the first place. Ron had been more upset at being left out than anything. "Why didn't you tell me?" he'd asked.

"Well, it wasn't really that important," Hermione had protested. "It was just surveillance, reconnaissance. We were just gathering information." And in her defense, that had been true.

"Yes it was important! Or you wouldn't have hidden it from me!" he'd shouted, offended.

"We were hiding it from everybody!" she'd retaliated. "We didn't tell a soul," she'd said as she pulled a face. "Well – Ginny knew."

"My own sister?!" he yelled, getting up in face a bit. "You told my little sister over me?"

"Well, you were all wrapped up with Lavender!" she had said. "You wouldn't have looked up unless I would have mentioned something involving Quidditch, mealtimes, or Lavender. Harry, back me up on this!" she pleaded.

"Yeah, what's that about anyway?" he retaliated, completely ignoring all of the pseudo-insults she'd thrown his way. "Why did you pair up with him? He's horrible at strategy and you know it!"

"Hey!" came Harry's protest from the corner. "I am not!" He was doing his best to argue, even though everyone in the room knew it to be completely true. "I won that one chess game once," he'd mumbled. "Remember, Ron?"

"What year?" Ron asked, going off on a tangent. "I very vaguely remember this happening, but also not really at all if you really think about it," Ron said. "I feel like it may have been a fever dream, mate," he said sheepishly. "Sorry to admit it."

"What?" Harry said, outraged, throwing his hands up. "I definitely won it! You don't know what you're talking about."

Hermione had cut in, hands slicing through the air as she interrupted their side conversation. "Enough!" Her voice was loud and clear, startling everyone in the room. "You two are acting so childish. Can we please just get in one, simple conversation? And then you two can duke it out over who's more strategic?"

"But he–"

"Hermione, that's not–"

"No, I–"

"Shut it, all of you!" Ginny yelled as she materialized and shoved her hands in between them as the protesting recommenced. "Relax, you're not getting anywhere like this."