Diamonds

20. Get There

Time passed and the term came to a close, both too slowly and too quickly for their liking. Draco wanted to know how she had possibly got the two Gryffindors to agree to leave them alone, and Hermione's only answer was that Harry was still in the hospital wing. "How could he possibly be bothering us?"

"He's Potter," Draco snapped, "he probably has a secret army of identical twins just waiting to surround us and take over."

"If there are more than two, they're not really twins, Draco." She turned the page without looking up.

"So you're agreeing with me? There is a secret army."

"No. I think you're acting crazy and spouting unbelievable ideas as a result of that. But it's okay, I promise I won't hold that against you - don't you dare!"

"You asked for it," he smirked, leaning closer, his hands brushing against her shirt as he tickled her now squirming form. She was fighting the urge but ended up unable to help it, shrieking with laughter as he did so.

"Stop it!"

"This is a library!" cried Madam Pince, chasing the two of them out from their seats.

They fell against each other in the hall, laughing and fighting rather pathetically as Hermione tried to be angry at him. By the time their friends found them, they were sitting on a windowsill in the hall as they argued again.

"Did you see her face?"

"Yes, and I'm never going to be allowed in the library again. I'm going to fail every test I have to take for the next six years, and it's all because you tackled me while Madam Pince was right there! Aren't you Slytherins meant to be sneaky?"

He scoffed. "I'll just tell mum to buy you a library. Better yet, a bookshop. You'd be good at helping people pick books, after all."

"Well, yeah, Draco. Our Hermione's good at everything."

"Blaise, stop touching me. Seriously. Please."

"I'm not sharing her," Draco clarified as Blaise removed his hand from around Hermione's shoulders, pulling a face at the pale boy.

"You don't own me," she huffed, resting her cheek against the glass. "Especially since you just got me kicked out of the library."

"How'd he manage that?" Theo wanted to know, standing just behind Blaise.

"I tickled her," Draco said, smug. "She laughed so loudly that Pince kicked us out."

"Did she really?"

"Madam Pince, thank you very much - show some respect. And I was screaming at him to stop, too. So I was being kind of loud. It's still his fault."

"That doesn't make any sense. Hi, Hermione. Theo, Blaise, Draco. Why are we all standing in the hall? Shouldn't we be in the library?"

Hermione scowled at him as the boys started to laugh. Blaise clapped Neville on the shoulder and explained, leaving the poor Gryffindor uncertain whether to laugh or take Hermione's side. He settled for the easier choice. "We're going to be late for the end of year feast."

"Late? We can't be late!" She jumped off the window and started down the hallway at a brisk walk while the boys looked at each other.

"Should I have told her what I actually just heard?"

"Probably. She does like knowing everything."

"She doesn't like knowing everything, she just does," Draco insisted.