Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 34 Playing Nice

The next morning neither Harry nor Hermione went to breakfast, instead Dobby brought it to them in the Head common room. Neither were able to eat; instead they sat there staring at each other.

When it was a quarter until ten, Harry finally spoke. "I'm going to see Scrimgeour in fifteen minutes."

"You're still going?" Hermione was more than a little surprised.

"Yes. I need the cup. He needs to die. He's taken everything from me."

"I'm still here," she said softly.

He looked over at her and smiled wanly. Ever since Ron had his outburst a few weeks ago and Harry had started to spend more time with Hermione, he had started to develop feelings for her that went beyond friendship. He knew, though, that he would never be able to tell her. Only bad things would come of it. She was already a big enough target, be couldn't make it worse for her. "I know," he responded.

He then got up left to the Headmistress' office. He was to floo from there to the Ministry, where the Minister would be waiting for him, to give him a tour and make appearances in a few of the key offices. Just before he left the room, Hermione told him to wait and ran up to her bedroom. When she returned, her hands were behind her back. "I've been working on this for the last week or so. Hopefully it will came in handy." She then presented him with an exact replica of Hufflepuff's cup.

He held it up, looking at it from all angles. "How did you get the detail... you've never seen it."

"No, but I saw your vision of it from when you were in the penseive with Dumbledore when we were practicing your occlumency. I transfigured a regular cup into this, hoping that if you could find the real one while at the Ministry, you could do a simple switching spell to get the real one."

Pullting the cup under his cloak he pulled her into a tight hug. "You are a genius, Hermione! I love you." He pulled away sharply. "I'm sorry... I didn't... I..."

She smiled at him. "Don't worry about it. I love you, too. After all, what are friends for?"

He was glad to realize that she thought he meant his love as friends, but a little sad to think that that was how she felt about him. "Well, I have to go or I'll be late."

When Hermione entered the Great Hall for lunch she saw that all the banners had turned black. Before she could make it to the table, Lavendar Brown and Pavarti Patil had come over, and enveloped her in a tearful hug. She let the two girls lead her to the table where they assaulted her with questions, though in more of a trying-to-help kind of way.

She went on her rounds with one of the Hufflepuff prefects. There were groups of people whispering to themselves in the empty classrooms and the hallways. Whenever Hermione and her companion would draw near, the voices would always cease only to restart after they had gone by.

When Harry returned from the Ministry he came to find Hermione immediately. He had seen the cup. He was sure of it. He just hadn't had the chance to be alone few even the half a minute he would need to switch it with the fake. They were both disappointed, but at least they knew where it was.

It was when they were at dinner that a realization hit Harry. He had heard someone at another table talking about quidditch and turned to Hermione with wide eyes. "I'm going to have to find a new Keeper." When he said this, the attention of a few people had turned to him. They had just finished the try-outs to replace Ginny. Now they were down another Weasley.

"It's okay, Harry. I'm sure you can take as long as needed. There's no rush."

"No... I'm not sure I even want to play any more."

"Harry, now you know that I'm not exactly Quidditch's biggest fan, but you love playing. You can't just give it up. At least give it some time for a proper think." He nodded and quietly went back to his food.

After they finished eating, they went back to the Gryffindor common room where Hermione insisted that everyone finish the homework they were given over the weekend to give their minds something other than Ron to think about.

When she finally got back to her own rooms, Zabini was thankfully the only one there, sitting on the loveseat reading a book. She went over to the loveseat and flopped down onto it, putting her head on Zabini's lap, looking up at him. He looked down at her, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Zabini, could you please massage my temples for me?" she pouted up at him, her lower pir quivering a bit. "It's really hard pretending to be sad all the time, and all the stupid crying is sooooooooo draining."

"What do I get out of this?"

"I won't hex you. Pleeeease? Pretty please?"

"When you put it that way, how could a guy refuse," he sighed, moving his fingers to her temples. It wasn't too long before she was moaning, seemingly putty in his hands. He decided to try his luck, and slowly moved his hands to her shoulders. When she didn't stop him, he continued working her muscles, kneeding out the knots.

"You're really good at this," she wimpered as he ground out a particularly stubborn knot with the heel of his palm.

"I know," he whispered into her ear.

With a wave of her hand the loveseat was stretched into an extra long couch that was about a foot deeper as well. There was a shelf of oils built in to one end, each a different scent. Most surprising of all though was Hermione herself. She was now topless, laying face down on the couch.

Zabini sat there dumbstruck until she spoke. "Pick an oil and continue. You're not going to 'get lucky' or anything, but who knows, someday I may just return the favor and help you relax." He shook his head at the presumptuousness of her, but moved over to the shelf of oils. He sniffed a few of them before finding one whose scent matched that of his cologne.

Pouring the oil onto his hands, he started moving his hands over her back, pushing and pulling at the taut skin. He made it a point to every now and again graze the side of her breasts, and she did nothing to chastize him. He was by now quite hard, but he knew that doing anything to try and ease the situation would cause her to hex him so he suffered quietly.

Eventually she became so relaxed under his warm touch that she fell asleep. He took the opportunity to go up to the bathroom, take a shower and take care of some business. When she awoke in the middle of the night, she waved her hand putting everything back the way it was and went up to sleep in her own bed.