It was a bit of a gamble - one which implied things she didn't know if she was ready to carry through with just yet - but it seemed to have paid off. That particular rough spot had been addressed and Hermione didn't think it could have gone any better, given the circumstances. Ever since Harry had mentioned talking to a snake in his letter she had wanted to address the issue but had gotten distracted.
When she remembered she'd thought it best to bring it up in person just in case she had misunderstood; snakes are typically regarded as being deaf to airborne sounds after all since the number and variety of what they could hear is so limited as to be almost nonexistent. She didn't think it'd be like dousing herself in petrol and lighting herself on fire though. Harry would never hurt her in a million years, she knew that; if things had gone horribly wrong it only would've been her hopes for a romantic relationship that went up in smoke, not really her.
It was in a bid to salvage things by dousing the righteous hatred she'd conjured by mentioning the connection to Voldemort that lead her to make up the bit about Parseltongue and kissing in the first place. It made an illogical kind of sense if you didn't think about it, working off a person's ignorance and desire to believe more than anything else.
While some can make hissing sounds, snakes use their tongues to collect chemical traces from the air to detect what's around them, not for communication, but while Harry obviously lacked the same biology, that explanation also failed to account for the existence of Parseltongue in the first place. Was it a magically based form of vocal communication encoding what Harry wanted to say into something the snake could understand? That seemed to be the case since it created auditory sounds, but was it unidirectional - perhaps taking the form of him giving commands or putting it into a kind of trance and turning it into an automaton - or was there a degree of interaction and freedom involved?
Harry said he'd asked it a question, which implies there's some sort of interaction taking place, but she hadn't seen enough to tell if that was actually the case and certainly wasn't going to have them stick around to find out. If only the ability wasn't such a taboo subject some of these answers might've been readily available, but as it was they probably wouldn't find anything about it outside of the Restricted Section of the school library, or that dodgy side street she certainly wasn't going down again.
Even with the heightened expectations she'd taken on by saying what she did, Hermione was glad Harry believed it; she didn't wanted this day ruined. He'd been… remarkably affectionate today, more so than she'd thought possible given all the things that could've gone wrong with his upbringing, though she supposed completely normal people were possible even when brought up in abnormal situations. Just look at her: she had a cartoon father and a robot mother but she had turned out alright.
Avoiding things that could ruin the day was also the reason she had spirited him out of the bookstore before "professor" Lockhart or that woman could do anything to Harry. Her gamble had paid dividends when they left so quickly that Harry never had time to realize that she had paid for his new school books herself.
She'd heard that money was the predominate source of relationship issues and Hermione was determined not to fall victim to any of those potential pitfalls. He didn't need to buy her interest or approval through gifts or anything of the sort and certainly didn't need to spend money to show affection, though he seemed to be developing a sense of that on his own, thankfully.
She was still looking for ways to slip the money Harry had given her back into his pocket though. Even if he was unaware it happened, she'd know and it would reinforce her stance that she was still an independent person; just because they were together didn't change that. She supposed the easiest thing would be to put it directly into his pocket again once the bank started reissuing currency, but if she could find other ways to do it she would.
Feeling that a distraction from her distraction would be best, she lead them back by Madam Malkin's until they reached the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies, where the brand new Nimbus 2001 was on display. Harry was almost instantly engrossed with reading the description of its handling, performance, and various features while she was more curious about why the broom had been made in the first place.
It seemed rather silly to her for them to release a new model which outstripped the one they had released just the year before. The wizarding world was a tiny place, compared non-magical one that is, so there can't be many people with enough disposable income to constantly acquire the latest model. Were they trying to create a secondary market of slightly used older brooms or had the 2000 model simply been rushed into production before it was ready and the 2001 was what they'd been shooting for?
Hermione didn't mention any of these thoughts to Harry though and just let him admire the craftsmanship of the broom in front of him. She knew he loved the one he had and wouldn't be looking to change; she didn't want to detract from that. The look on his face when he flew said it was probably his dearest possession - aside from Hedwig, and now Dobby - which he classified as family and not possessions at all, which was good. It didn't mean he couldn't look though, especially if it alleviated the 'you just promised to kiss him ' tension she felt.
Something else in the shop interested her much more than the broom did: it was curly-haired Marjorie chatting up the young man behind the counter. Hermione looked at her watch and saw they still had a good bit of time before lunch; the older girl must have "gotten lost" on the way back to work after dropping off their robes at the second hand store and "come in for directions."
Hermione decided to try an experiment with a new 'friendly ribbing' kind of chastisement so she loosened her hold on Harry's arm and slowly slipped back a bit so he wouldn't see what she was doing, and then waved inside to get their attention. It was the shaggy-haired shop attendant who saw her; he smiled and motioned inside to say they were open. Instead she pointed at Marjorie.
After a few quick words it was the girl's turn to see what was going on, and to chuckle at seeing them there. Hermione tapped her watch and sent the older girl a slightly exaggerated look that said 'shouldn't you be at work?' while shaking her finger at her as if to scold her. Inside the shop, Marjorie laughed, then spun around, took the bloke by the face and kissed him on the lips! While the man stood there looking stunned, the curly-haired girl turned back to her with a look daring her to do the same.
"I just remembered," Hermione said, red-faced and thankful Harry hadn't seen them. "We need to get Potions supplies." She took his arm, quickly leading them away from the shop and the laughter she was sure was happening inside.