Irresistible Poison DRARRY

Irresistible Poison - Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Wildfire

Many play the game of love; but few ever know the score.

Hermione burst into the Gryffindor common room, out of breath from running. She glanced around urgently, scanning the room with her eyes but evidently not finding the person she was looking for.

"'Lo, Hermione," Seamus called out from where he was sitting with Dean and Neville. "What's up?"

"Where's Harry?" Hermione demanded. "Is he back from Quidditch practice yet? I need to talk to him right now."

"Stand in line, Herm." Seamus rolled his eyes. "What is up with Harry tonight! Ron just came down and asked us the same question. Well, Harry didn't come in and we don't know where he is. You'd think that if his two best friends couldn't find him, he must really not want to be found."

"Ron was looking for him, too?" Hermione's heart sank. "So where's Ron gone off to?"

"Dunno." Seamus shrugged, and then broke into a knowing grin. "You just missed him, actually — we think he's gone off for an S. A."

"S. A.?" Hermione repeated. "What's that?"

"It stands for Snog Appointment," Dean chipped in with an impish wink. "See, Ron was asking us if Filch usually patrolled the fifth floor of the Astronomy Tower after dark — and we all know Ron never actually draws his star charts, he just copies them off the textbooks."

"What!" Hermione exclaimed, dismayed; she spun on her heel and dashed out of the common room without a further word.

Seamus, Dean and Neville stared after her, looking nonplussed.

"Oops," Seamus spoke cautiously. "Was it something I said?"

"You think she's into Ron?" Neville asked, wide-eyed. "She seemed upset when we said Ron might be off snogging."

"But she came in asking for Harry," Dean pointed out. "Not Ron."

"Maybe she's afraid Ron's gone off to snog Harry?" Seamus offered with a wicked smile.

"What?" Dean and Neville said together; Dean shook his head dismissively. "No way. Not Harry and Ron, I don't think so. Really."

"Harry and Hermione then?" Seamus suggested.

"Now I'm getting confused," wailed Neville. "Who do we think is snogging who, again?"

"Only one way to find out," said Seamus decisively, sounding pleased. "We'll just have to see who comes back looking thoroughly snogged."

"And how exactly does one 'look snogged'?" Dean inquired, amused.

"Oh, you know... the usual," Seamus said, sounding very authoritative on the subject. "Cheeks flushed with colour, lips tinged a rosy hue, eyes misted with passion, a general breathless and guilty look..."

"Hey, how d'ya know so much about what it's like to be snogged, hmm?" Dean interrupted, quirking an eyebrow.

Seamus gave him an angelic smile, and with a casual shrug of his shoulders, turned back to his homework.

* * * * *

Hermione had a gift of perceptiveness, a certain intuition that sent warning tremors through her mind each time she sensed that trouble was waiting around the bend. And now, as she hurried along the corridors that led toward the storage room in the Astronomy Tower, something akin to a massive earthquake was building inside her head.

She almost stumbled on the edge of a step as she reached the fifth floor. The oppressive silence that hung all around did nothing to appease her fears; it only served as a foreboding of unpleasant things that were almost certain to come. If she could only get there on time, to warn Harry...