Warning Signs

I sighed happily as Potions class finished, Professor Slughorn was droning on about Felix Felicis, which was a luck potion that, as the name implied, gives the drinker of it good luck for an entire day. Apparently Harry Potter had won the potion for making the best Living Draught potion. As far as I knew Harry wasn’t that great at potions, so I wondered how he had pulled it off. I figured it was Hermione who had helped him achieve it, but who knows.

I walked to the library, smiling when I saw Hermione with her nose in a very large textbook, thankfully alone. I walked over and she looked up, grinning as our eyes met.

“Hey,” I said, shifting nervously on my feet. I felt like a teenager with a schoolgirl crush, and that’s what I looked like to most people I bet.

“Hi, Shannon,” she said, grinning broadly.

“Oh, um, call me Shane, all my friends do,” I said, sitting in the seat next to her.

She chuckled low in her throat, a most sexy sound. “Shane? I like that.”

“So, what are you looking at?” I asked her, blushing because of her warm compliment. Merlin, what was coming over me? I felt like I couldn’t control myself. Damn teenage hormones to bloody hell, they must be throwing me off-track in this disguise.

“Oh, this?” She smiled. “This is Hogwarts: A History. I read it when I was very young and have been re-reading it. I find it really interesting,” she explained. “Harry and Ron say I’m wasting my time because most of the things I read have been said and done, but I don’t pay any attention.”

I grinned. “No, that’s brilliant that you want to learn so much about your second home. At least that’s how I think of Hogwarts.”

She blushed. “Oh! Me, too. I’ve always considered this castle my other home. Do you go to your parents home during the holidays?”

I smiled. “Sometimes I prefer to stay here, it all depends on how I’m feeling. Sometimes going home isn’t the best option for me.”

She nodded her head, looking sympathetic. “Do you get along with your family alright?”

“Sometimes,” I said, chuckling. “But not all the time. My father’s dead and Mum is… Well, she and I don’t always agree on things. She has a very strict way of living and I’m very open-minded and flexible. Everything she does is predictable and I like the unpredictable.”

Hermione leaned forward in her seat, smiling. “That must be an interesting combination.”

I laughed. “Oh, yeah. Half the time we’re trying not to rip one another’s throats out. We love each other, really,” I joked, grinning when Hermione laughed. Merlin, she looked so beautiful when she smiled. How I wanted to kiss her… But I knew I shouldn’t, couldn’t.

We studied for several hours, talking, laughing and sharing common interest’s in-between tiresome essays and equations.

Finally, around eleven PM, we decided to call it quits. We packed our things and I walked with her towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

We heard voices overhead and suddenly Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle from Slytherin appeared before us around the corner. I stopped but Hermione kept walking and slammed into Goyle, who roughly pushed her into me. We collided and fell to the floor with soft grunts, causing the three of them to laugh.

I glared at Draco from the ground, my arms around Hermione protectively from behind.

Draco sneered. “Well, well. It looks like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are getting quite friendly with one another,” he said, looking down at us with a wicked grin on his face.

When Crabbe and Goyle didn’t laugh along with him, Draco sent them a dirty look and they immediately burst into a fake uproar of laughter.

“What’s it to you?” I snapped, helping Hermione to her feet. I loathed Draco Malfoy almost as much as I loathed Snape. They reminded me a lot of one another, though Draco was the spitting image of his father, Lucius Malfoy, who thankfully was locked up in Azkaban after being exposed by Harry Potter as a Death Eater. Even though Draco was rather young for a Death Eater I had high suspicions that he was working for Lord Voldemort. What better way to follow in his father’s footsteps?

“A Ravenclaw with an attitude,” Malfoy snarled. Hermione lightly gripped my arm as he advanced on me, coming so close that our faces were inches apart. I could feel his breath on my cheek and I tried not to let him see my disgust. I did not back down and I did not flinch, much like how I reacted to Snape when he grew confrontational. Showing weakness to your opponent no matter how intimidating they are was the last thing you wanted to do, especially when engaged in combat.

“Back off, Malfoy,” I said, with a threatening edge to my voice. I hoped he would just leave us alone and be on his merry way, but I knew he wouldn’t leave without putting up a fight. Perhaps if he was by himself it would be different, but Hermione and I were outmatched two to three.

“Make me,” he muttered, grinning crookedly.

“You don’t want me to,” I said, remaining as calm as possible.

“Is that so? Incase you hadn’t noticed, it’s two to three. Might as well consider it one to three because that filthy little Mudblood behind you doesn’t even count as a human being in my book.”

My face turned red and I let out a snarl. “What did you just call her!” Hermione held me back as I struggled to move forward. “Lemme go, Mione! I’m gonna kill ‘em!”

“Shane, NO! Please, let’s just go and forget about it,” Hermione pleaded, her arms now firmly around my waist so our bodies were pressed tightly together. I continued to struggle, wanting to tear Malfoy limb from limb for speaking like that to someone as wonderful and kind-hearted as Hermione, but somehow she managed to hold me back.

Draco laughed jovially, as if we were having a conversation he very much favored. “Kill me?” He laughed louder, the sound infuriating me beyond reason. “That sounds like quite a threat coming from a tiny Ravenclaw like yourself. I doubt you’d even get a punch in before I have you flat on your back with a broken nose.”

Crabbe and Goyle snickered behind Draco, cracking their knuckles with hungry looks in their eyes. I knew I could take Malfoy, but I couldn’t hex all three of them at once. Though just getting Malfoy would be satisfactory enough, I knew I shouldn’t. Hermione was right, avoiding confrontation was best, and even though I was in disguise Dumbledore and the Ministry expected me to handle situations like this as an adult.

I calmed down enough to keep a straight face. “You know what, Malfoy? You’re not even worth it. I’m sick of wasting my valuable time on a lowlife like you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to resume walking Hermione back to her Common Room. Good night to you all.”

All three were too shocked by my sudden change in demeanor to react and by the time Mione and I rounded the corner out of sight we were laughing so hard that we were practically doubling over onto the ground our stomachs hurt so much from it.

“That was amazing, Shane!” Hermione said, wiping tears out of her eyes. “Honestly, though, you were very smart to avoid fighting or hexing him. It’s not worth it, he’s not worth it,” she corrected, smiling.

I grinned, shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t want to fight him, it wouldn’t prove anything. Well, except that he’s all bark and no bite. One right hook and he’d be the one with the broken nose!”

We reached the portrait of the Fat Lady leading into the Gryffindor Common Room and Hermione turned to me, smiling. “Well…”

Her voice trailed off and my smile faded as things grew awkward. I stared at my feet and absently moved closer to her, so that our bodies were inches apart. “Well…”

Hermione leaned up and kissed my cheek, placing one of her small hands on my shoulder. Our faces stayed close as she pulled back, staring into my eyes. “Thanks for everything.”

I nodded my head, my eyes moving downward to her sensual red lips. She seemed to be reading my mind because next thing I knew she was stepping closer to me. I felt her chest brush against mine and I shivered, placing my hands on her hips as our lips moved closer and closer…

The first kiss was soft, innocent, and delightful. She pulled me closer and quite soon the kiss deepened and my hands entangled themselves in her hair, her own sliding along my back to pull me closer. We kissed like this for several heated moments, and my heart was racing so hard in my chest that I feared it would burst through skin and bone at any moment.
When we parted, we were both breathing heavily as if we had overexerted ourselves exercising. I couldn’t help but grin as I opened my eyes, sighing happily as her hand stroked my cheek.

“Hermione,” I whispered, and she kissed me again and again and again until the Fat Lady grew tired of watching two lovesick teenagers snogging right under her nose. Reluctantly, I let her go and she disappeared inside the portrait hole.

I sighed, wandering towards the Ravenclaw Common Room. The passionate kisses we had just shared would complicate things beyond belief, but right now I just wanted to bask in the afterglow of the feel of her soft lips against my own. I could still feel mine tingling, a most pleasant sensation that made my toes curl.

At the moment, I didn’t have a care in the world.

Note from Author: I hope my old readers are enjoying the new chapter additions. There will be more to come quite soon and as always thanks for reading!!!!!! : )