I Want to Hold Your Hand
Chapter One
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"I can't believe that you idiots forgot to grab the cloak!" Hermione hissed at Harry and Ron as the three of them ducked behind one of the large cases in the trophy room of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"I didn't see you rushing to pick it up, miss know-it-all." Ron hissed back.
Hermione looked at him through narrowed eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but Harry put up a hand to stop her.
He knew where this was going. "You can bicker all you want after Filch has caught us!" This brought their attention back to the situation at hand.
They had been visiting the house elves in the kitchens. Okay, so Hermione had been visiting the house elves. Harry and Ron had been cramming their pockets with all sorts of pastries and biscuits that the elves were only too pleased to bring them. "They like working here, Hermione." Ron had managed to say though a mouthful of a rather large chocolate biscuit, "I don't think even they'd join spew." "It's S.P.E.W.!" "That's what I said, spew." Harry had been so busy trying to prevent one of Ron and Hermione's infamous rows that he had neglected to gather the invisibility cloak back up; the cloak that had once belonged to his father. The cloak that had seen so many a night like this… and they had forgotten it and were now probably in the same situation that James Potter and his cronies had once found themselves in.
"Okay," Harry said just above a whisper, "We go out the door to the left just as soon as Filch turns the corner." Ron and Hermione nodded in silent agreement; and, as if on cue, Filch turned the corner and the three tiptoed as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Luck appeared to be on their side. For a good corridor and a half, it was smooth sailing.
Their heart paces began to regulate again as they distanced themselves from the trophy room and Filch. This feeling, however wonderful as it was, was short lived. They turned the next corner to make their way back to Gryffindor tower, and were met with one of the most unpleasant sights to any student out of bed after hours: Filch's cat Mrs. Norris. Her gleaming eyes gave away the sense of pride she was feeling at the moment. Filch would be very pleased, three Gryffindors out of bed after hours in one shot…
"Guys…" Harry croaked.
"Yeah?" Ron and Hermione said slowly in unison.
"Run."
All three of them bolted. Harry, who had had much practice in running away from imminent danger in his life, was ahead of Ron and Hermione by at least three strides. He turned a corner sharply as they passed a sort of fork in the castle. Ron, however, kept going straight ahead.
"This way!" he grabbed Hermione's hand and yanked her along with him. She had to take two steps to keep with one of his. They ducked down many intertwining passageways, hoping to loose Mrs. Norris, or at least cut her off from getting to Gryffindor tower before them.
"Turn right up here." Hermione informed him. Ron, who had been going to Hogwarts for six years did not need know-it-all Hermione Granger to tell him how to get back to his own houses tower, but he didn't stop to tell her that. It was by this point that they had completely lost Harry. Every once and a while, Hermione was sure that she saw him down a corridor, sprinting in the same direction as they were, but he would quickly vanish.
The two of them turned a sharp right, which nearly caused Hermione to hit the wall. It was a few turns and a small flight of stairs later that they saw the most welcoming sight of the entire evening: the portrait of the, now sleeping, Fat Lady.
"Caput Draconis!" Ron and Hermione screamed together, and the portrait swung open. They could hear the Fat Lady mumbling something along the lines of "It's bad luck to wake a person while she's sleeping you know…" Ron and Hermione, however, did not care about bad luck at that particular moment as they rushed into the presently empty common room.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione said.
"I'm not sure."
"Oh, Ron, what if he got caught?"
"What do you think Filch'll do to him?" Ron's eyes widened.
Hermione ignored this comment, "It would be all your fault if he got caught anyway."
"What?!"
"You were the one who forgot to grab the cloak." Hermione continued the argument from earlier behind the trophy case.
"How is it my fault? You could have just as easily have gotten it."
"Honestly Ron, if you were interested in anything other than your stomach we could have all gotten back here safely!" And as if to emphasize her point a pastry fell out of Ron's pocket with a squish to the floor of the common room.
"What about you and your elf rights, huh? If you weren't so caught up in spew, you might have remembered to snag the cloak!"
"It is S.P.E.W., and elf rights are far more important than the need for you to consume your body weight in sweets!" Just then, the portrait hole swung open to reveal a panting and disheveled Harry.
"Harry you're safe!" Hermione called, relief lacing her every word. Harry said nothing, but raised an eyebrow. Ron realized that he was still clutching Hermione's hand from when they had all separated earlier. His infamous Weasley blush creeping up to the tips of his ears as he dropped her hand quickly. Hermione realized this at the same time and tried to give Harry her best, this-is-not-what-it-looks-like-and-if-you-say-anything-I-will-make-sure-you-die-slowly-and-painfully look, while too blushing madly.
Harry shrugged. "I'm going to bed." Ron and Hermione watched him climb the stairs to the boy's dormitories.
"So…er… Harry's safe." Ron offered one very awkward minute later.
"Yeah." Hermione brilliantly replied.
"So… um… I guess I'll turn in."
"Yeah… er… me too."
"Uh… G'night."
"Night." They both hurried up the stairs to their prospective dormitories.
Ron lay in bed, some minutes later, thinking about how lucky they were to have gotten past Filch and Mrs. Norris in the same night. This thought only occupied his mind for a short period of time as sleep soon overtook him. The only thing he could remember thinking after that was about holding Hermione's hand in the common room; and that to him seemed to be something more to boast about that getting past Filch, Mrs. Norris, and the whole lot of Hogwarts professors in one night.
A/N: Okay, so what do you think? Yes I know it's short, and VERY rough around the edges, but this is my first bit of Harry Potter fan fiction ever. Were my character in character enough? I know it's hard to tell from a barely three page story, but I still worry…I am open to any and all criticism. Please review.