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Yuletide Blessing in Disguise	By : Gandalfs-Beard Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 123768 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 10
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related properties--all rights belong to Rowling. Nor do I make any money from the production of this work.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
No rest for the Weary (or the Wicked)

Hermione could often sense when something was bothering Harry; he would get that brooding, distant look in his eye. It had become even more apparent since he had started taking his schoolwork more seriously, as he was much less likely to let his attention drift these days as it was doing right now, unless he was disturbed about something.
And she wasn’t quite sure why Harry was disturbed after what had been a generally pleasant day over all - even training with Moody and Dora was starting to become easier - well, not so much easier as slightly less painful - now that they had started practicing stunning and shielding spells too. The other fourth year Gryffindor boys had departed from the common room and headed up to their dormitory after having another good laugh about Malfoy being chased by the Unicorn, and Parvati and Lavender had said goodnight and retired to the girls’ dorms shortly after that.
Gradually, the common room had emptied as the older Gryffindors set off for bed as well, eventually leaving Hermione alone with Harry, both of them with their heads in books, bathed in the warm orange glow of the dying embers in the fireplace. Hermione kept taking little peeks at Harry, her frown growing deeper; finally, unable to take the lack of communication anymore, she sighed.
“Harry?”
Silence!
“Harry, are you alright? What’s wrong?” The distress in Hermione’s voice seemed to finally trigger a reaction.
“Huh? What?” Harry looked up from his book, peering at her with concern. “Me? I’m fine! What about you?”
Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed. “Harry! You’ve been staring at the same page of your Runes book for the last hour. What’s going on with you?”
Harry flushed and averted his eyes. From his hesitation, Hermione surmised that whatever was bothering Harry had something to do with her.
“Please Harry! Whatever’s wrong, we can work it out as long as we talk about it.”
Harry sighed, letting his book fall in his lap, and rubbed at his scar with an anguished look as if it were paining him badly. For a moment Hermione wondered if Harry was sensing Voldemort again and simply didn’t want to alarm her.
“It was something Fleur said while were swimming this afternoon,” Harry finally said, as if each word were being pulled out by force. “... something about her sister, Gabrielle...”
“Something didn’t happen to Gabrielle, did it? Surely Fleur would have mentioned it to me too?”
“No,” said Harry quickly. “Nothing like that, Hermione. It was just an offhand comment about how she’d miss Gabrielle more than anything in the world - that’s why Fleur’s mum has been letting Gabrielle stay here with Fleur since Christmas. It...it just made me think... about that Mermaid song - that bit about ‘what you’ll sorely miss’...
“Maybe we’ve been thinking about it all wrong because the song says ‘what.’ ... But what if it’s not really a thing or an object like my Firebolt after all? What if it’s really a ‘who’? ... There’s nothing in the world I’d miss more than you, Hermione! I don’t think I could bear it if something happened to you at the bottom of the lake!”
Hermione felt her heart flutter at Harry’s earnest, tormented declaration. Biting her lip, she reached out her hand and caressed his clammy cheek.
“Oh Harry! Even if they do take me - and I expect you’re probably right - I’m sure I’d be okay with the Merpeople. The Ministry wouldn’t have made an arrangement with them if they thought the Merpeople would harm any ‘hostages.’ ... They’d be more likely to protect whoever they ‘take’ than anything.
“The risk of International Incident would be far too high if a non-participant got injured. I’m much more worried about you.”
“Yeah, maybe,” said Harry skeptically. “But even if the Merpeople do try to protect the hostages, something could go wrong. I mean, blimey Hermione, if Bagman or whoever tosses a load of Sea Serpents and Kelpies in the lake, anything could happen!”
“That’s a fair point,” Hermione admitted ruefully. “Still, if it makes you feel any better, at least Professor Moody is training me to fight too, and he’s not exactly teaching us to play by normal dueling rules, is he?”
“True,” Harry agreed half-heartedly. “It’s more like he’s training us for war, really.”
“Exactly! And if you’re worried about me breathing underwater, Harry, I can just use the Bubblehead Charm that Fleur told us about today if I need to.”
“I still don’t like it,” Harry grumbled, looking as agitated as ever.
Hermione could see by the look in his eyes that Harry would probably be awake worrying all night, now that he’d got a hold of the idea of her being “held captive” underwater. Even if Hermione hadn’t been roused by Harry’s impassioned declaration of her importance to him, she could only think of one way to help him keep his nightmares at bay.
“And I wouldn’t expect you to,” Hermione murmured, leaning in, the hand on Harry’s cheek sliding to the back of his neck.
Harry’s breathing grew more ragged as her lips drew nearer to his. When they finally met, the kiss was at first gentle, almost tentative, but Hermione knew it was working when she felt Harry relaxing, his arms curling around her waist. The kiss deepened, grew more heated, and Harry fell back on the sofa, Hermione atop him running her fingers through his messy black hair...

~o0o~
“Blimey!” Harry muttered, suddenly wide awake when he realised where he was and who was with him and what time it was.
Hermione was still cradled in his arms, sprawled on top of him, her tawny curls spilling over his shoulder and her own arms wrapped around Harry. It was nearly six in the morning and they were still entwined, having fallen asleep together on the sofa. Hermione stirred when she felt Harry shifting beneath her. She smiled sleepily at him and blushed, fluttering her eyelashes shyly.
“‘Morning Harry. Feeling better?”
“Loads!” he replied with a grin.
But then Harry began turning pink when he realised that he needed a cold shower, and that Hermione could probably tell as well. In fact, Hermione looked as if she were trying to restrain herself from nervously giggling as she gave him a quick peck on the lips and sat up, her own cheeks growing rosier by the moment.
“Er... gotta go change,” said Harry quickly.
His grin turned into an embarrassed grimace and he fled up the stairs to his dormitory, his face hotly blazing. Quietly, Harry crept in, thankful that everyone was still asleep. He grabbed a fresh set of clothes and slipped silently into the bathroom. By the time he had showered and changed, Ron was waking up.
“Where were you last night?” asked Ron, eyeing Harry suspiciously. Harry gulped.
“Er, fell asleep in the common room. ... Studying,” Harry fibbed, reckoning it wasn’t too far from the truth.
“Oh, I see! Studying with Hermione, eh?” Ron raised his eyebrows and smirked a bit, clearly not believing a word of what Harry was saying.
“Shut up!” Turning beet-red, Harry grabbed a pillow from his bed and flung it at Ron.
“Hah! Knew it!” Ron grinned.
“What’s going on?” Neville mumbled as he roused from his slumber.
“Nothing!” Harry snapped irritably.
“If by nothing you mean shagging Hermione in the common room after everyone else went to bed!” Ron chortled, dodging the second pillow that Harry threw at him.
“I wasn’t...” Harry began to shout.
“Joking mate! ... I’m just joking,” said Ron in a wounded tone.
“Anyway, wha’s wrong with crowin’ about it?” asked Seamus, who was now wide awake and grinning as well. “Most blokes would be bragging if they bonked a bird.”
“Hermione’s not a bird!” Harry fumed, “And anyway, nothing happened!”
“If ye say so,” said Seamus, shrugging and smirking. Dean rolled his eyes.
“Sorry Harry!” said Ron earnestly. “I mean it... really!”
“Yeah, okay,” Harry grumbled, feeling slightly mollified.
But he couldn’t quite meet Hermione’s eyes as they made their way down to breakfast together with the other Gryffindors, and every time they tried looking at each other they both turned pink and quickly looked away. If Dora noticed anything, she kept it well hidden.
As the day wore on, Harry and Hermione both managed to get over that morning’s embarrassment and by afternoon they could look at each other without blushing. Everything was more or less back to normal between them, though it seemed to Harry that Hermione was finding even more excuses than ever for hugs and close physical contact - not that he minded in the least.
If that stolen kiss - steamy enough to melt an iceberg - at the end of Herbology in the empty greenhouse after everyone else had already gone on to lunch was any indication, Hermione’s wandering hands suggested that she wasn’t at all put off by their really close encounter that morning, much to Harry’s relief.
Finally regular lessons were over for the day, and as they waded through the white powdery drifts down to the lake for their swim, it started to snow again. This time, when Hermione tugged off her robes and grinned at him, ready for Warming Charms, Harry’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. Hermione was wearing a white with gold trim two-piece bikini instead of her one-piece, exposing more of herself than he’d ever seen before.
“What’s the matter Harry?” asked Hermione as she tied her bushy hair back in a pony-tail, an impish look in her eye.
“Er, n...nothing,” he replied a bit squeakily, thinking he wouldn’t need that Warming Charm if his face grew any hotter as he adjusted his swimming trunks.
Dora, who was standing nearby on the ice shelf, tried to hide her little smirk. But she caught Harry’s attention anyway - it was hard not to as Dora too had worn robes under her parka today rather a jumper and jeans, and the reason why was obvious when she slipped out of her robes revealing a black and silver one-piece.
Harry and Hermione were both a bit surprised, as Dora had made it plain that even with Warming Charms, she thought swimming in a half-frozen lake in the dead of winter was madness. But when Fleur arrived, Hermione caught the glances and blushes between the two older witches and surmised that more was going on than met the eye.
Once they were all in the dark waters of the lake, Harry began to relax. And, as he had the day before, he sampled a small pinch of Gillyweed, enough to last about ten minutes, in order to get used to what he would be trying to mimic when he was advanced enough to use his Metamorphmagus talent instead.
And apparently Hermione, who was practicing the Bubblehead Charm, had come up with an interesting idea for how to make the best use of their time underwater together. Harry found himself the recipient of a submerged, slippery embrace and kisses from his girlfriend, who seemed to be doing her best to impersonate a mermaid...

~o0o~
Dry and clothed once more, nearly an hour later Harry found himself in the library with Hermione, as they both did research to help him with the Second Task. Harry was sitting at a table, reading up on an obscure Rune-set which ancient Vikings had apparently used to ward their vessels against Sea-Serpents, that Hermione had found in Mariners, Magic, and Monsters of the Sea.
After giving the section a read through, Harry flicked back to the pages on Sea Hags, wondering if there was any advice with dealing with those as well. Harry rather thought he should be prepared for any eventuality.
Hermione returned from the dusty unused section of muggle reference books and smiled, pleased to see Harry so engrossed in the book. Harry looked up and grinned, seeing that Hermione had another pile of books in her arms, which she promptly plonked on the table.
“Should’ve guessed you’d be back with more!” he chortled. “What’ve you found there Hermione?”
“Oh, just some books on human anatomy and ichthyology,” said Hermione breezily.
“Ickthy-what?”
“Ichthyology... the study of fish. I thought it would be helpful to look up gill cell-structures and compare them with the cell structures of human lungs...”
Harry rubbed at his forehead and raised his eyebrows, beginning to wonder if he wouldn’t just be better off learning the Bubble-Head Charm and being done with it, especially when Hermione launched into what she had discovered so far.
“These are the images of the gill-structures that you’ll need Harry,” Hermione began in her school-teacher tone of voice, opening up several of the books on the table to the relevant pages. “Once you’ve reached the right skill level as a Metamorphmagus, it shouldn’t be as difficult as I thought it might be. ... At first I thought you’d need special fish cells, but apparently fish gill cells for extracting oxygen and transferring it to the capillaries aren’t much different than those in our lungs - they just arrange them differently, in layers of epithelium instead of internal alveoli...”
Harry’s eyebrows had shot up, disappearing under his messy black fringe at “won’t be as difficult as I thought,” and his brain had gone a bit fuzzy when he heard the words “epithelium” and “alveoli,” though he had a vague idea that he knew what capillaries were.
Hermione saw his expression and blanched slightly, realising that she’d lost him already. Then Hermione blushed, reminding herself that Harry was a very visual learner. As long as he could picture it, he could do it, and with enough verbal association he would pick up the correct terminology with ease. But he had to be able to create a visual framework in his mind first to hang the words on.
“Sorry Harry...” she said with a sheepish grin, “don’t worry about anything I just said. All you need to do is picture these gill cell-structures at the same time as you’re visualising the overall cosmetic form while you’re transforming. I suppose that will be quite difficult to do - hold more than one image in your mind at a time I mean.”
Harry nodded and smiled at Hermione. That, he understood right off the mark. Suddenly, not caring that they were in the library where anyone might spot them (which was empty at the moment), Harry swept Hermione off her feet.
She tumbled into his lap with a little “Oh,” taken aback by this abrupt turn of affairs. Encircled by Harry’s arms, her own around his shoulders, Hermione melted into the kiss. She gave Harry a very pleased but puzzled look when he had finished kissing her.
“What was that for? Not that I minded of course....” she said breathlessly, her lips still tingling.
“For just being you!” Harry grinned. “You’re brilliant Hermione! I think I like it when you go into lecture mode. ... Dunno why I ever complained really! You always get around to showing me what you’re on about eventually, and then I can work out what you just said even if I didn’t quite understand some of it the first time through.”
Hermione was sorely tempted to remain in Harry’s arms and snog a bit more, amidst the heady aroma of leather bindings and parchment of the tomes surrounding them, but they were on a tight schedule these days.
“Thank you Harry! Though honestly, I can’t remember a single time you ever complained,” she beamed. “It was always Ron who complained as far as I recall...”
Harry had to give her that, come to think about it. As he wracked his brains, he couldn’t actually remember ever complaining about Hermione’s discourses himself either; he supposed he’d simply heard Ron’s gripes so many times, they had seeped into his noggin.
“...Anyway,” Hermione continued. “we should probably check out the books we need now. We’re due to see Dora again in about ten minutes, and see how far along you are in your Metamorphmagus training...”
It had only been a few weeks - almost a month really - since Boxing Day, when Dora had first given Harry some tips for training up his talent, but he had already come a long way in that time. He had graduated from simple things like growing and shortening hair, changing its colour, and changing skin and fingernail colour, to more complicated things, such as adjusting musculature and bone structure, like changing the shape of his nose and jaw.
Now Harry was at the stage of trying to do a load of changes all at once. After Dora invited Harry and Hermione into her private chambers, they set down their book bags and got right to it.
“Right, Harry,” said Dora. “Let’s see what you’ve got then.”
Harry concentrated, but not too hard, just as he’d been practicing. Moments later he looked like a weird cross between Ron, Dean Thomas, and Draco Malfoy; Ron’s nose, cheekbones and freckles on a dark complexion with straight platinum blond hair and eyebrows. To top it off, Harry waved his hands, displaying sparkly hot-pink fingernails - clearly mimicking Lavender’s.
The overall effect had Dora and Hermione in stitches. Hermione couldn’t stop giggling and Dora tipped over her chair, she was laughing so hard. Harry grinned.
“Merlin, Harry!” Dora wheezed, trying to catch her breath as she clambered to her feet and righted her chair. “That’s hilarious, not to mention bloody brilliant!”
“So, what do you think?” asked Hermione once her giggles had abated. “Is Harry ready to practice replicating the Gillyweed transformation yet?”
“I’d say give it another week,” said Dora. “If you practice changing the rest of your anatomy a bit every day, Harry, I reckon you’ll be good enough to focus all your efforts on getting Gillyweed effects down. After that, it’s just a matter of regular practice, and over time you’ll be able to really perfect your technique. Eventually you could even change gender when you get good enough.”
“Excellent!” exclaimed Harry, thrilled that he was advancing as smoothly and rapidly as he was. “I’ll need all the practice I can get, to get the gills right...”
Professor Moody had also kicked up his training sessions into high gear, the focus now heavily on combat spells: stunning, shielding, and a few explosive spells, for the time-being the concussive ones such as Bombarda and Expulso, though he and Dora continued training Harry and Hermione in hand to hand fighting techniques and dodging as well.
“...You’ll also wanna practice your releasing and severing charms, Potter,” Moody growled. “The last thing you want is to get tangled up in Water Weeds... and don’t be afraid t’use the more dangerous spells like Diffindo on creatures if your life depends on it. Holding back if something’s tryin’ to kill you won’t do you any favours.
“You oughta start practicing doin’ this all underwater while you’re swimming too. I’ve seen you two out there swimmin’ with Delacour. You might as well get her in on it and all train together - stayin’ alive is more important than winning...”

~o0o~
“Crabbe, Goyle...” Draco barked, glaring at Crabbe and Goyle when he finally managed to successfully kill three rodents with Avada Kedavras after days of producing nothing but green sparks, “find me some more rats. And can’t you find more than three? ... That’s bloody pathetic! I need a load more than that to get this right...”
“Finding rats is harder than it looks,” whined Goyle.
“Oh come on!” Draco snapped. “How hard can it be? Don’t make bloody excuses! It doesn’t even have to be rats - it doesn’t matter what you bring me as long as it’s alive. Go into the woods and find me squirrels if you have to, or weasels... whatever! I need to practice the Cruciatus Curse too...”
“What about the Imperium Curse?” Crabbe asked thickly, picking his nose and peering at the bogey.
Draco rolled his eyes. “It’s Imperius Curse you idiot! And I don’t care about that one right now! ... Now get going and hurry up about it.”
Crabbe and Goyle meekly obeyed their orders and filed out of the empty cell deep in the dungeons in which Draco was training himself. Draco watched as they departed, frustrated that he’d probably have to wait at least another day until they found enough small animals for him to practice on. He knew he’d have to keep at it for days or even weeks before he could generate enough power to take out a wizard, or even a muggle playing at being a witch.
Enraged at his rapid decline in status - even in his own House - and the continued slights on his honour, Draco was more determined than ever to get his revenge on Potter and his pet Mudblood, and he wasn’t going to rely on the ineffectual schemes of his father and his father’s Ministry friends anymore.
- 15
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Yuletide Blessing in Disguise