Monday 14th February
Hermione woke up when a soft tune started playing next to her head. She looked over to where the tune was coming from and found a pink envelope with a single rose laying on top of it. The tune was coming from the envelope. She smiled and, after a quick struggle with Crookshanks, who had fallen asleep on her tail, she opened the envelope.
The envelope went quiet when Hermione broke the wax seal. The seal, instead of a coat of arms or the mark of a business or organisation, was pressed with a simple heart. Inside the envelope was a simple muggle Valentine's card. The picture on the front was of two cats curled up together in a heart shape; it was ridiculously adorable. Inside the card was a short little poem;
On this day
I'll speak what is true
I just wanted to say
I love you
Hermione smiled; the poem was simple, but poetry obviously wasn't Harry's strength, and she loved that he'd at least attempted it. Beneath the poem was a message;
'meet me at our spot at 9:00'
"Our spot" could only be the Room of Requirement. She grabbed the pocket watch her parents had gotten her for Christmas and checked the time; 8:15. That gave her forty-five minutes to get ready and arrange her own surprises. She grabbed her wand and a box from her bedside table.
She opened the box and waved her wand, the chocolate snitch in the box springing into the air and flying off in search of Harry. That done, Hermione started getting ready for her date.
She checked her outfit for the day was still where she had put it last night. It was then she pulled out the small bag that passed for her make-up kit and hesitated. Hermione didn't wear makeup as a rule, but she did for special occasions.
The last time had been New Years. She probably would have for her anniversary if she had known Harry would take her out right after detention.
The problem was, she wasn't very confident with doing her own makeup; her mum had always helped her in the past. Hermione looked over at Lavender and Pavarti's bed, where the two girls were starting to wake up.
They wore makeup all the time, and would probably be happy to help.
But did Hermione want to risk all the giggling? She sighed and went to ask Lavender, who was the more awake of the two.
The things she put up with for Harry.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
While Hermione was getting ready for the date, Harry was already up and busy getting everything ready for it. First, he had to get the Room of Requirement ready for both Hermione and himself, as well as for Daphne and Tracy.
Tracy had wanted to help setup, but she couldn't send Daphne a note to meet them without risking someone realising it was Valentine's related. This meant Harry had to picture not just what he wanted for him and Hermione, but also what Tracy wanted.
Harry didn't want to know what Tracy wanted with an additional room that had only a padded table, warm oils and towels. At least, that was what he kept telling himself. Maybe if he told himself that enough he would believe it.
Harry called the room into existence and took a walk-through to check that everything was there. It was, so he did a second run-down, setting up the finishing touches, like putting the record Tracy had handed to him into the gramophone, putting the bouquet of roses in his and Hermione's main room. He could have had the room conjure some flowers, but he wanted Hermione to be able to keep them, so he had owl-ordered a dozen to be delivered to him discreetly.
He had sent Hedwig with a card and one of the roses to be left on Hermione's pillow.; the card Hermione's mother had helped him get. It had been a little weird asking his girlfriend's mum to help buy a Valentine's card, but Hermione's parents were the only people in the Muggle world that he could ask.
The rooms were ready.
There was the dining room that all four of them were going to use, that opened onto a balcony, that definitely wasn't part of Hogwarts, no matter what the view was. Then, on either side of the room was a door that led to a nice relaxing sofa in front of a roaring fire, like Harry and Hermione normally used. But, there were more doors in those rooms.
Tracy had chosen a massage room, and a bathroom with a giant tub that could easily fit four people, even six, if you weren't worried about personal space.
Harry gave his room choices a quick once over and, finding that everything he could think of was in its place, he called Dobby to sort out breakfast and waited for the girls to arrive.
Suddenly, a snitch flew in the window and started to buzz around Harry's head. Harry caught the little ball on reflex, and only then, by the feel of it, did he realise it wasn't a real snitch; it just felt wrong.
Once he looked at it properly, he found that the ball was actually a chocolate ball wrapped in gold foil. The wings were made of paper, with a handwritten sentence on each;
Happy valentine's Harry \0/ Love from Hermione.
Harry grinned as he unwrapped the chocolate ball and bit into it. The ball was filled with praline* and tasted decadent and delicious.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Hermione left the Gryffindor common room and started off to meet Harry. She stopped at the grand staircase as she saw two figures making their way up. As they were going the same way, Hermione decided to wait and walk up with Daphne and Tracy. The two girls soon got to Hermione's floor and stopped when they saw Hermione.
Seeing the two Slytherin's slightly out of breath, Hermione greeted them first, "Good morning. How's things?"
Still slightly out of breath after climbing six flights of stairs to get this far, Daphne answered, "Morning Hermione; not too bad, just wishing the school had less stairs."
Hermione smiled sympathetically, "I think every Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would agree with you. We have to climb that every day. After dinner as well, when we're tired. The dorms have a great view, but sometimes, I don't think it's worth it."
Daphne and Tracy began making their way up the next flight of stairs, with Hermione falling into step beside them. Daphne looked a little weirdly at the Gryffindor, then, after looking around to check no-one could overhear, she turned to Hermione, "Um, Hermione...not that I would normally mind you tagging along, but you do know it's Valentine's, right? Tracy and I aren't looking for company."
"I'm on my way to meet up with Harry. Who just happens to be in the same direction as the two of you are going," Hermione explained, doing her best to keep a knowing smirk off her face. After all, Daphne was the only one of them who hadn't been told about the plans for the Room of Requirement.
Tracy giggled at the look of bemusement on Daphne's face, before opting to put her out of her misery, "Daph, Hermione and Harry are using the same secret room as we are. It was Harry who suggested it. Apparently he and Hermione use it quite often."
Daphne's smile in return was a little forced, "Oh, that's... lovely . I just thought it would be the two of us, though," She directed the last sentence to her girlfriend.
"It will be, for most of the time. Can't say anymore yet; just trust me, Daph," Tracy added, seeing that Daphne was having none of it. By now, they had reached the seventh floor.
"Yeah, this place is amazing . Trust me; you'll have all the privacy you require," Hermione couldn't help teasing Daphne a little more. Tracy shot her a look, however, so she didn't push any more.
Hermione ended up walking in front of the couple as they came up to the tapestry of Barnabus the barmy. The seventh floor was deserted apart from the three of them, so Daphne and Tracy took the advantage to walk arm in arm.
Hermione opened the door as the two loitered behind her, and she walked in first, intending to turn around and watch the look on Daphne's face at her first experience of the Room of Requirement.
However, what the room held distracted Hermione, pleasantly surprising her so much, she completely forgot about Daphne.
There was more than one room; there were at least two more, judging by the doors to the left and right. When she and Harry had used the room before, it was always just that, a single room. Bigger, smaller, equipped however they wanted, but always just one room.
Hermione wondered if she and Harry had gotten to fixated on the name; 'Room of Requirement', that they had assumed there was a limitation that didn't exist.
The next thing was that there was an outside. An actual area which appeared to have natural light and all the conditions of an outside balcony. But, that was surely impossible to have, at least, from where the Room of Requirement was in the castle.
They'd had windows before, ones which looked out on magically created scenes conjured up by the room itself, but the big french windows on the far side of the room were open onto a balcony. Hermione could even feel a warm breeze coming in that had no place in Scotland in February.
This big changes completely overshadowed the smaller ones, like how the room, which was almost identical in style to the usual date-room that Harry and Hermione used, was set up for a few moments.
Hermione could definitely see a woman's touch, presumably Tracy's, in the decoration. There were a lot of pale pinks and pastel colours, rather than the bolder, stronger colours Harry would have chosen; even the plates on the family-sized dining table were Bone china, and had flower patterns on them, different from the plain gold plates that mimic the ones in the Great Hall, which Harry normally got when he prepared the room.
Speaking of Harry, he was standing to one side of the room, waiting for the three of them to stop marvelling at the room. He had put on that green shirt which matched his eyes, and, probably at Tracy's insistence, had forgone his normal blazer that he wore on their dates, opting for a dark green open-style wizard robe instead. As Hermione knew, Harry didn't have a robe in that colour, so she suspected that he'd charmed one of his school robes.
It looked good on him, but then again, most things did. In her opinion.
Once Harry presumed Hermione had finished gazing all over the room, he walked over and gave her a quick kiss, like he would most mornings, "Good morning 'Mione. You look amazing. Happy Valentine's."
The smile on Harry's face was infectious; Hermione soon found herself beaming right back at him. Harry's complement made asking Lavender to help with her makeup worth it, "Morning Harry. It looks like you've been busy."
Harry brushed it off, "It was nothing."
During the time Hermione was taking in the room and greeting Harry, Daphne, who along with Tracy had been right behind Hermione when she entered, was looking around the room absolutely gobsmacked.
"This room wasn't here before. I remember; in my first year I came up here to see the tapestry of the ballet-dancing trolls. One of the older girls had mentioned it and I thought it sounded funny. There was no room here then," Daphne said.
"This is the Room of Requirement. It only exists if you need it to," Harry explained. He was soon joined by Hermione and Tracy as the three of them explained how the room worked tailored to each individuals needs.
Daphne was stunned by how complicated the magic to do something like that would be. But, as there was no way to find out, let alone examine, the magic behind the room, they soon got distracted by breakfast.
Hermione was happy to see a lot of her favourites. There was croissants, a platter of fruit, large bowl of yoghurt, and French baguettes. There were also pots of honey, fruit preserves and warm, easy-spread butter.
Lastly, there were the drinks; dark, rich coffee, a steaming pot of tea and two ice cold pitchers of juice, one of pumpkin and one of orange.
"We're sharing meals because it's easier than arranging two separate menus, but after breakfast we each have our own side to retreat to," Tracy told Daphne and Hermione, indicating the two side doors.
"Which side is ours Harry?" Tracy asked, indicating herself and Daphne.
"That one," Harry pointed to the one which was on the left side of the room as you entered it.
Daphne smiled, "Sounds lovely and all, but let's eat. This breakfast looks and smells amazing."
Soon the four teenagers were tearing into their breakfast, "How did you two manage to get fresh croissants and baked baguettes? And orange juice, you never see orange juice in Britain."
Harry and Hermione were stunned by the last bit Daphne said. Tracy answered Daphne first, as best she could, "You need to thank Harry, he is the one who arranged the food."
The two Slytherins looked over at Harry, but he was still shocked at Daphne saying you never see orange juice in Britain.
"Harry?" Daphne prompted, calling Harry back to his senses.
"Oh, I just have a good friend among the kitchen elves. He baked them himself," The two girls accepted that with a nod, "Daphne, what did you mean when you said you never see orange juice in Britain?"
Daphne look at Harry a little confused, but answered anyway, "My family often spends the summer on the continent; France, Spain or Italy, mostly. Over there, they serve orange juice instead of pumpkin juice. I love orange juice, but I just can't get it in wizarding Britain. And my parents won't let me go to the local Muggle town, because 'you don't know how to act like a Muggle and we won't risk breaking the statute just for some silly little drink.' "
The four of them continued with breakfast, chatting about mostly unimportant things. It was clear, though, that they were all looking forward to splitting up and heading to their separate dates.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Harry was a little nervous when he led Hermione to the room he had created for them.
The first room he was confident on. It was a variation on their regular date room, only it was decorated for Valentine's, and he had added a bookcase full of wizarding fiction for Hermione to choose from.
What he was nervous about was the other rooms he had added. He hoped Hermione would like them.
"Oh, Harry! it looks so nice! Oh, and a bookcase? Are you thinking we could recreate what we did for my birthday?" Hermione sounded like she really liked that idea. She had a thing for laying her head on Harry's lap and having him read to her. They often did that at least twice or three times a week, though Hermione never tired of it, and Harry enjoyed the fact that Hermione enjoyed it.
Harry relaxed a little; at least one of the options he came up with was getting a good reaction, "That is one option, but there are a few others. But firstly; these are for you," Harry had picked up the bouquet of roses he'd gotten and presented them to Hermione with a flourish, " Real ones, not conjured by the room."
"Harry, these are lovely. Thank you."
Harry drew Hermione's attention to one of the doors she hadn't noticed yet, as they were under notice-me-not charms, so that no-one, apart from Harry, would see them till it was pointed out to them. Harry decided to have a little fun with this, and started to promptly act like a cheesy game show host.
"Behind door number one we have; the Japanese hot springs experience! Spend a day relaxing in a recreation of a national volcano heated spring from the land of the rising sun," This was the one Harry was most nervous of, incase Hermione thought that he was just doing it to see her without a lot of clothes.
"Behind door number two we have; the gardens experience! Spend the day sunbathing on the lawn surrounded by a beautiful garden of flowers.
And our third and final door; watch your boyfriend flail about and fall on his ass a lot with our private ice skating rink!"
Hermione grew more and more amazed with each option.
"Or, we can curl up on the sofa and just chill out and read," Harry went back to his regular voice now, "We can do any mix of these as you like. But, we are meeting Daph and Tracy on the balcony at one o'clock for a picnic lunch, and then again for dinner at the regular time."
"Wow Harry, this is amazing! I never even considered that the room was this adaptable. Um...why don't we go ice skating first, then we can warm back up in the hot spring. I assume that you had the room provide swimming suits for us?"
"Yeah, I did, but I didn't know what style you preferred, so I asked the room for a selection for you," Harry blushed, "You should be able to find something that you like," Harry was sure she would, the selection ranged from conservative one-pieces to a rather revealing bikini that Harry was positive he would only ever see Hermione in when he was asleep, with almost anything in-between.
"Then, after lunch we can check out the garden, maybe take a few books with us."
Harry nodded and lead the way to the frozen one that the room had conjured up. He had tried to get a Muggle ice-skating rink, but hadn't been able to. He didn't know if it was a limitation of the room, or the fact that he had never seen an ice-skating rink in his life. He suspected the latter.
The door lead to the inside of a small wooden hut, that was just big enough for the two of them to sit down and put on the supplied knitwear and ice skates. The room had provided a copy of Hermione's blue knitwear set that she had bought in Diagon Alley in the summer, as well as a thick jumper and and a pair of leggings that Hermione could wear under her skirt.
Harry was supplied a similar set of knitwear and a jumper, only his were in green instead of blue. After they had put on their jumpers, hats, gloves and scarves, Hermione kicked Harry out into the snow for a minute while she put on her leggings. Harry grumbled that she had kicked him out into the snow as he looked around at the rather large frozen pond.
Why couldn't she have kicked him back into the warm room with the sofa? She soon let him back in so that they could put on their skates.
Harry, who had never been skating before, was a little surprised at how easy it was to walk on a normal floor in skates. He had to keep his weight on the center of his feet, but if he shifted his weight the high sides of the boots pulled his weight back to the center. He listened intently as Hermione tried to explain how to ice skate.
"You need to keep your feet in an L shape. Then, you push sideways with one foot and let the other foot that is pointed away from the other slide over the ice," Hermione explained, but Harry wasn't getting it at all.
"I'll have to watch you when we get on the ice. I just can't picture it in my head."
Hermione looked a little disappointed that Harry didn't find her explanation enough, but there was nothing Harry could do. So, instead of letting them dwell on it, he hit them both with warming charms and led Hermione out to the ice.
Once they got to the edge of the ice, Hermione demonstrated to him what she meant, and put one foot on the ice and pushed off with the other, and gracefully started to slide over the ice. Harry watched her for a few minutes as she skated in circles and did a few figure 8's to warm up her limbs, then moved onto the ice to attempt a go himself.
And promptly fell on his ass.
Hermione skated over to him and offered him a hand to stand-up, which Harry had no choice but to accept, slightly denting his ego.
"It's Ok Harry, everyone has trouble at first. I fell my first time on the ice, so did everyone else who learned to skate. But give it ten minutes and trust me, you will be fine."
Hermione was both right and wrong. The couple spent the next twenty minutes with Harry clutching tightly to Hermione's arm as he tried to keep his balance as the two of them skated in a wide, lazy circle around the edge of the frozen pond. But after that twenty minutes, Harry was no longer clutching onto Hermione's arm for balance, but instead was holding her hand just because he wanted to.
After an hour the two were skating together rather well while Hermione showed Harry how to do a few simple tricks, as well as showing off a few that she knew that Harry wasn't ready to try.
After another half an hour on the ice, the two of them were playing a simple game of tag, that was mostly Harry trying to catch a much faster Hermione, though their legs were more than ready to take a break.
Hermione suggested that it was time to warm up again and Harry was in complete agreement; any more skating would see his legs give out under him. He thought he was in pretty good physical shape, but skating seemed to use muscles he didn't even know he had.
The two of them made their way back up to the hut. Hermione went to kick him out again but Harry pointed out that the hot spring had a changing area for each of them, and that there was no reason not to take advantage of it.
So all they did was take off their skates, which ended up taking a lot longer than they had expected. They had to help each other pull the skates off their feet as their feet had swollen a little bit in the tight boots, and this was made even harder by the numbness of their hands and the fact that they were giggling like crazy, but they had been having way too much fun to notice or care.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Once their boots were off, Hermione practically pulled Harry back into their sitting room and through the door to the hot spring. There were two doorways just inside the door, one had a pink curtain hanging in the doorway, and the other a blue one. The purpose was clear and Hermione pushed Harry towards the blue while disappearing behind the pink.
The space Hermione found herself in was a simple one person changing area. There was a bench for her to sit on, and a shelf for her to put her clothes on. The only other thing in there was a medium-sized chest, about half the size of her school trunk.
Hermione looked in the chest and found that there was a wide selection of swimsuits in there. Hermione blushed when the first one she pulled out was a bikini that was way too revealing. She almost went looking for Harry to give him a piece of her mind when she pulled out a one piece that was the most conservative swimsuit she had ever seen.
That was enough to get her to calm down and really look through the swimsuits; there were a few that were so revealing that there would be little point in wearing them, but there were also ones that were as modest as a bikini could get. It was the same with the one-pieces; they ran from one ridiculous extreme to the other, but in the middle was quite a few options that Hermione would be comfortable in.
If there had been anyone else besides her and Harry, she probably would have gone with a one-piece, but as it was only going to be the two of them Hermione was feeling a little daring.
She quickly stripped off. She practically had to peel off the leggings that the room had provided, as the melted snow and ice that had soaked into them, preventing them from just sliding off.
That done, she put on the suit she had selected and packed her clothes on the shelf next to a giant, fluffy, pink towel that was waiting for her to return.
Hermione wished there was a mirror that she could check herself in, but apparently Harry hadn't thought of that. Hermione turned to leave the changing area, only to jump as the wall next to the doorway that lead to the hot spring was taken up by a full body mirror that definitely wasn't there before, "Oh, the room must make some changes while you are inside," She checked out her appearance in the mirror and frowned.
Until she saw it in the mirror, she hadn't given a second thought to her makeup. The steam and hot water was going to ruin it. She considered cleaning it off, but it would be a shame, as she had spent so long getting it sorted this morning.
Then she had an idea; if the impervious charm could keep things from getting wet, maybe it could protect her look, too.
"Nothing to be lost by giving it a shot," She pulled her wand from where she had left it next to her clothes and aimed at her own face, " Impervius. "
Hermione felt her magic as the charm took hold, and after another quick look in the mirror, she made her way out to the hot spring. The first thing Hermione noticed was the heat.
After the cold of the iced-over pond, the humidity and heat were almost oppressive.
The pool itself was styled to look like a natural pool, with a stream of what Hermione assumed was heated water flowing in on the far side of the pool. The area she was standing on was a wooden deck that stopped part way into the pool.
Harry was standing next to the water, waiting for her. He was wearing a dark-midnight blue pair of swimming shorts, leaving his chest in full view, something he wouldn't have been comfortable doing around anyone even a few months ago.
Right now though, Harry didn't look uncomfortable at all. He was too busy staring at her.
The bikini that she had chosen was not one of the bits of dental floss with the delusion of being a swimsuit, but it wasn't one of the most modest ones either. The one she had gone for was a black set with a white trim that flattered her figure, while still being relatively modest.
"See something you like, Harry?" Hermione teased him, unable to keep herself from posing just a little.
Harry suddenly realised he was staring and got flustered, "God, sorry. I uh...it's just you look...you know. Sorry."
Hermione giggled at him, "Calm down Harry; I wouldn't have chosen this suit if I was uncomfortable with you seeing me in it," She walked over to him, "So what do you think?" She posed a little more.
"So hot," A smile spread over Hermione's face that was soon obscured as she leaned in and kissed him.
When she broke the kiss she said, "good answer."
Then, with a mischievous smile, she pushed Harry into the water. Hermione didn't know if Harry expected it, or if it was pure reflex, all she knew was that when Harry fell back into the water he grabbed her, probably to try and steady himself. The result though was that she went crashing into the water about half a second after her victim.
The two of them struggled and splashed around for a few seconds as they got their bearings and untangled themselves from each other, getting their feet underneath themselves. Once they got their breath back, the two of them started laughing as Hermione shook her head to clear the water from her far too large cat ears.
"That was not one of my better plans."
"I don't know...seems to have worked out pretty well," Harry said as he splashed a small bit of water at her.
Hermione wondered if Harry had any plans for what to do here other than relax. While the pool was deep enough to swim a little, you could just as easily walk, and the pool wasn't really long enough to swim around anyway.
Hermione pulled Harry over to one of the rocks around the outside of the pool that had been placed just right to sit on, and after pushing Harry onto it, she climbed onto his lap so that she was facing him and stole his lips for a quick kiss.
After breaking the kiss, Hermione looked down at a grinning Harry and collapsed against him and pulled him into one of her hugs. The thing was, she had never given Harry a hug with so little between them before.
She could feel the flesh of his torso pressed against hers. She could feel the scars on his back under her hands, she could even feel Harry's rough and calloused hands on the small of her back where he held her in return.
It was a heady feeling that was affecting her to the point that she was glad that they were sitting in water and she didn't have to worry about Harry noticing just how worked up she was.
She could also feel just how much Harry was affected by them being so close.
She could feel him pressing into her...well she had read a lot of words for it. Vagina, pussy, core, sex.
The truth was, she didn't really care what it was called right now, what she cared about was that it felt nice. Very nice.
She broke the hug and sat up straighter, but the movement only pressed herself onto him more. She considered getting off him, but then she saw Harry's face. He was nervous, he definitely knew she could feel him and he was worried about how she would react.
"Calm down Harry, it's fine. I'm not going to get offended by you getting an erection."
"But..."
"No buts. It's fine. I can move if you are uncomfortable, but it doesn't bother me. In fact, I kind of like it," Hermione was blushing now.
Harry seemed surprised, "You like it?"
She nodded, her blush deepening, "It...it shows me that you find me attractive. Which makes me feel good about myself."
"You are attractive and amazing and sexy and I love you."
Hermione melted against him, "You shouldn't use 'and' so much in a sentence Harry," Hermione admonished him, before she laid herself against him, taking his lips again, only this time she didn't surrender them for a long time.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Harry left the changing area and went and sat in the sitting room. He was surprised that Hermione wasn't there waiting for him, as he had taken the opportunity of being alone to release the tension that had built from an almost naked Hermione sitting in his lap while she pressed her barely covered self into him.
That had taken some time, and he expected Hermione would have been faster at getting ready and would be wondering what was talking him so long. It wasn't like she had to spend a long time drying her hair and fur.
She had a spell for that now.
About five minutes later, Hermione emerged from the door that lead to the hot spring, once again wearing the outfit she had arrived in. She left the leggings, jumper and knitwear set in the changing room, as she hadn't bothered to take them off after leaving the frozen pond until she changed into her swimsuit.
"You ready to go to lunch Harry?"
"Yeah, sure," He offered Hermione his arm, which she took, and he escorted her back to the dining room, where Daphne and Tracy were already waiting.
On the table that they'd had breakfast on that morning sat a wicker basket and a large blanket.
The basket was filled with the food and drink that Harry had arranged with Dobby. Daphne was just picking up the blanket when Harry and Hermione entered the room.
"Oh hey you two. I hope your morning has been as good as ours," Daphne smiled at them. She seemed more relaxed than the two Gryffindors had ever seen before. Not just emotionally, but physically as well.
"Hey Daphne, hey Tracy. Yeah, our morning was great; Harry arranged for us to go ice skating, then relaxing in a hot spring," Tracy picked up the basket of food and carried it out onto the balcony, while everyone else followed.
Hermione and Daphne continued to chat along the way, "The ice skating was a lot of fun; I haven't done it since Christmas break in our first year. And then soothing our aching legs in the hot water was Heaven."
Daphne coo'ed in all the right places as she listened to Hermione recounting of her morning with Harry. Daphne then started on about what Tracy had arranged for her.
Harry, seeing that Daphne was focusing on the conversation, took the blanket and laid it on the floor of the balcony.
"Ooh, Hermione, that sounds great. Tracy had a massage studio set up. You haven't lived until you have had one of Tracy's massages. It was so relaxing."
Tracy blushed as she and Harry listened to the conversation as they started to unpack the picnic, "My family owns a spa; I learned a few things over the years," Tracy answered to Hermione's questioning look, "Daddy said, even if I don't end up working there, I will own it one day, so I need to understand how the jobs are done."
The picnic had most of the usual stuff; ham-salad sandwiches, scotch eggs, pork pies, a bacon and cheese quiche, there was also a large bowl of salad and strawberry cheesecake for dessert.
The four teens sat on the blanket and helped themselves to the food. Harry bit into one for the scotch eggs and was pleasantly surprised to find that the boiled egg at the center still had a runny yoke.
"So Harry, you going to watch tomorrow's game?" Asked Tracy.
The Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match was scheduled for the next day. Draco had finally gotten his arm out of his sling a few weeks ago, when Madam Hooch had been heard discussing with Professor Snape that if the Slytherin Quidditch team didn't play this half term, then she would have no choice but to give Slytherin two forfeits, one for each missed game, taking Slytherin completely out of the running for the House cup. After that, Draco's arm had mysteriously shown rapid signs of improvement.
"I probably won't get much choice. We are playing Slytherin later this week as well; Wood will want us there to see how they are playing. It's going to be weird though, a lot of Gryffindors will be rooting for Slytherin tomorrow."
It was a rather busy week this half-term. First was the Valentine's day/Hogsmeade visit on Monday. Then there were three Quidditch games scheduled; Slytherin Vs Hufflepuff on Tuesday, then Gryffindor Vs Ravenclaw on Thursday, and finally Ravenclaw Vs Slytherin on Saturday.
"Why would Gryffindor be rooting for Slytherin?" Daphne asked. She was about as in to Quidditch as Hermione was, when Harry wasn't playing. So, not interested much at all.
"If Hufflepuff win tomorrow, then there is a good chance that they will win the cup. But, if we win then, it's an open field, and every House, including Gryffindor, is still in with a shot at winning. It's not that they would be supporting us as much as supporting the opportunity us winning gives them. Right Harry?" Tracy explained to Daphne.
"Guilty. I may have found that not everyone in Slytherin is a bully, but most of us Gryffindors still get along better with the Hufflepuffs as a whole. Supporting your house over theirs just feels weird."
"Why don't the two of you sit with Daphne and I tomorrow?" Invited Tracy.
"No offense, Tracy, but I don't think that's a good idea. The two of you may be our friends, but there is still Malfoy and his lot to worry about," Hermione obviously thought it was a bad idea, but wanted to be nice about it.
"It won't be a problem. Malfoy will be over the pitch and Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Parkinson will be in the south stands. They always are when it's cold. The southern stands are a bit more sheltered from the wind."
"Yeah, but if we sat with you, the other Slytherins would tell Malfoy's lot that we are friends. Just think of what the stuck up prick would do to you if he found out," Hermione stressed the word you.
Daphne agreed with Hermione, "Sorry love, we can't risk it. If that lot take an interest in us, then they will be watching for any weakness. We would risk them finding out about us, and then we would be screwed. You know what my mum would do," The two girls shuddered.
Hermione was quick to ask, "What would your mother do?"with
"She would take me out of Hogwarts for a start, and she would probably arrange for me to be married off to a rich pureblood."
"But that's... barbaric . Why would your mother put you through that?"
"Mum had...a bad experience with a lesbian she grew up . It's tainted her view," Daphne was starting to look a little uncomfortable, and as it seemed Hermione was going to press on, Harry jumped in, "'Mione love, I don't think Daphne wants to talk about this today. We are supposed to be having fun."
Hermione looked a little embarrassed to have pushed Daphne so hard, and after apologizing, took a bite of her sandwich as a cover to not talk for a short while.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Hermione was having a great time.
Ice skating with Harry had been a lot of fun, and holding up Harry while he learned to ice skate had been nice and romantic. The hot spring had been perfect; the hot water had been just what her aching legs had wanted after their morning on the ice. She had done a bit more with Harry than she had planned when she started grinding on him, but it was definitely not more than she was comfortable with.
She had gotten so worked up that she had to take care of herself in the changing room before lunch. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Harry hadn't realised why she took so long in the changing room.
Probably a mix of both. She wasn't ready to go any further yet, but her hormones were definitely screaming at her to be ready soon.
Right now, she and Harry were relaxing in a beautiful garden that looked like it belonged to a manor house or even a small palace. There was a mix of sweet floral scents all around them, that were coming from the starting array of flowers that the room had conjured.
She and Harry were relaxing in a large deck chair that was built for two. Well, Harry was relaxing in the deckchair, she was relaxing on Harry, so that he could read the book they were sharing over her shoulder.
They were alternating who was reading out loud every few pages. The book was a wizarding fiction based on a Muggle raised wizard who had no clue who his parents were, and after he learned about magic, uses his powers to be a successful private investigator in the muggle world.
Hermione suspected the author was a Muggle born, or at least Muggle raised like Harry and the books protagonist, as the details of the Muggle world were accurate, if a little dated.
Hermione wondered if she should give Harry his other surprise once they had finished this chapter, or wait until they finished the book. She had just decided that she would do it between chapters, when Harry turned the page, showing that there was only about two paragraphs left in the chapter. The main character had just gotten a beating from an enforcer for the unknown antagonist, and being in a street full of Muggles had prevented the main character from defending himself with magic.
Harry finished the chapter and waited patiently for her to start reading the next chapter, "Harry, can we take a break for a few minutes?"
"Sure; is everything Ok?"
Hermione climbed out of his lap and sat up on the deckchair next to him, "Everything is brilliant . I haven't enjoyed myself this much in ages. I just need to give you your Valentine's gift," She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small box, not unlike a ring box, and handed it to Harry.
If Harry had handed her a box like that on Valentine's, she would be worried about opening it, but Harry didn't seem to have that problem as he opened the box and pulled out a shiny silver key.
Harry looked a little confused, "It's a key. A muggle one. What is it for?" The first two sentences were said to himself, but the question was directed at her.
"It's a key to my home. Well, our home. My parents' home. You know what I mean," Hermione was a little flustered, "I talked with mum and dad, and we want you to have a key. It represents that you are welcome there whenever. You can let yourself in, even if no-one else is there.
It's your home. You know...if you want it to be."
The two teens were frozen as Harry tried to process what she had just said, and she waited to see how he would react.
Suddenly, Harry was on top of her in a reversal of how it normally happened, and he gave her a bone-crushing hug. The book lay forgotten for the rest of the evening.