Kiss Me Not || Drarry

Part 2

Harry shrugged one shoulder, "A hundred or two maybe? I wasn't exactly keeping count."

"Okay," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Well, I'm going to the library. There are three books I know of that I can start with. You're going to bed."

"What?" Harry asked in a surge of confusion, pushing his hand through his hair.

Hermione took him by the shoulder and pointed him at the dorm stairs, "You look awful. Go get a few hours rest, I'll wake you once I've finished my preliminary research."

Harry nodded as a wave of exhaustion swept over him. Just knowing that Hermione knew, that she was looking into it, took an enormous weight off his shoulders. He slipped into the boy dorm filled with the reassuring sound of a bunch of blokes snoring and grumbling and farting in their sleep. Harry didn't even bother pulling his curtains closed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Harry woke with a start as Hermione dropped herself and a pile of books on the end of his bed, "Wha-! Hermione?" He rubbed his eyes and then scrubbed his hair, blinding reaching up next to his pillow where he put his glasses and then sleepily sliding them on.

"It's nearly time for lunch so I thought I'd better wake you so you don't miss it and also to tell you what I've found," Hermione said all in a rush, already flipping open one of her books.

"Lunch?" Ron groaned from the next bed, shoving his blankets down and stretching.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes, lunch. You slept through breakfast."

Ron slowly sat up and looked around the empty dorm, "Harry slept through too," he pointed out.

Hermione shook her head, "Yes but Harry didn't sleep much last night so it doesn't count."

"Nothing wrong with a bit of a lie in, it is sunday after all," Ron muttered as he stood, stumbling over to Harry's bed and sitting down next to him, "Nightmares?" he asked.

Harry shook his head, feeling his cheeks start to get hot. With a few hours sleep and the morning light to separate him from what had happened the night before, the whole, not kissing anyone thing, seemed a bit silly and a lot more embarrassing.

"Harry says he's never kissed anyone, that he's been repelled from every person he's tried," Hermione said in her no-nonsense, academic tone.

"Wot? Like every-everyone?" Ron asked, his brow furrowed, "Even Ginny?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, even her. But last night-"

"It's surprisingly hard to find much research on magical signatures and how they interact," Hermione cut him off, "What I have found written about it makes it sound like a fun little side project the author just tinkered around with. The general impression I got is that your situation is very, very rare. So rare it's not mentioned at all. I've been thinking of looking into the medical books. Maybe's it's a magical medical condition of some sort..."

Ron yawned, "So it's like The Princess and Priestess then?"

"The what?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked up from her book in confusion, "What are you talking about, Ron?"

Ron looked from Hermione to Harry, "It's a fairy-story. Do muggles not have that one?"

"Guess not," Harry said, whose knowledge of children's stories was fairly limited thanks to the Dursleys.

Hermione shook her head, "I've never heard of it. What in the world does it have to do with Harry's predicament?"

"It's kind of the same thing, really," Ron said, his brow scrunching up in thought, "It's been ages but it goes kinda like: A long time ago there was a Princess of this kingdom and she was supposed to marry this other Prince bloke but on the day of their wedding, they couldn't kiss," He raised his hands, showing a gap between the two of a few inches, "and in their culture, the marriage couldn't happen if the kiss didn't happen. So the King arranges for more princes, and none of them can kiss her. So he calls in all the nobles, and none of them can kiss her either.