Harmony Anthology- Short Story Collection

Not My Hermione

10:45 am

Harry was walking along the corridor after his first-morning class, when a hand shot out of one of the alcoves and yanked him in. His wand was coming up when he met mischievous brown eyes.

"Hermione?" He asked confused, staring into her happy face.

Harry was sure he had left Hermione still debating one of the lesson points with the professor. He was very familiar with that arguing tone Hermione had been using. Harry had thought she was going to be there awhile until her point was driven home.

But now here she was, pushing him back against the wall. Harry backed up obligingly, not really understanding what Hermione was about. Her face came close to his, and Harry noticed for the first time the lighter flecks of gold almost hidden in Hermione's dark brown eyes.

Then her eyes closed, and she pressed her lips to his sweetly. The press of her lips lightened for just a moment as she whispered softly, "I just needed my morning kiss." Then she leaned forward again, her lips pressing chastely to his, the palms of her hands resting on his chest as his heartbeat picked up.

Harry's eyes remained wide open, frozen as his best friend kissed him. What the bloody hell was happening? What was—

Hermione's hands, which rested high on his chest, stroked slowly downward, and the tip of her tongue ran along the seam of his lips. Tingles ran through his entire body and obliterated all his brain cells.

Harry relaxed back against the wall as Hermione Jean Granger gave him the sweetest kiss of his young life. When she slowly pulled back, he had to force himself not to grab her and pull her close again.

"Hermione–" Harry started, his voice thick and eyes wide.

Hermione pressed a finger against his lips, her eyes gleaming with desire. "Shhh. I know we shouldn't until later, but I couldn't wait." She gave him a slow smile before stepping away from him and out into the corridor.

Harry remained frozen, leaning against the wall for a long moment before darting out after her, determined to get an explanation. He almost ran down the large corridor, his face swiveling to and fro as he tried to spot her bushy hair. How had she disappeared so fast?

Harry arrived at his next class out of sorts and at the last minute, but there, seated in her usual spot, was Hermione. She didn't look up at him as he came into the class and he rushed forward, putting his books down.

"What was that about!" He hissed at her, his lips still tingling from her kiss.

Hermione looked up with an annoyed expression. "I just wanted Professor Vector to know those calculations were incorrect. It was just up to the millionth place, but that could definitely impact—"

Harry stared at her as Hermione continued on her lecture about how important exacting calculations were and that rounding errors were rampant throughout the book and she didn't know why the professor had chosen it. In short, she behaved very Hermione-like. The normal Hermione-like.

Not the Hermione who looked at him with teasing eyes and made all his thoughts disappear.

Then Hermione stopped her lecture, shaking her head and laughed, leaning close to him with a smile. "Sorry, you know I can't help it sometimes."

Harry spotted the gleaming gold flecks in her smiling eyes and couldn't stop staring at her even when class began and Hermione reached over to poke his side to try to get him to pay attention.

12:00 PM

When class let out for lunch, everyone stampeded out, but Harry followed along much more slowly. His head still whirling with what had happened that morning. All throughout class Hermione had behaved absolutely normally, and he couldn't bring himself to ask her the mental-sounding question of: Did you, by any chance, kiss me earlier?