The Accidental Invasion

by computerneek

Chapter 56: Cuddles

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had followed Theodore Nott up to the Entrance Hall that morning not because they were trying to protect him, but because they had been witness to far, far more of the Slytherin common room than anyone gave them credit for.

When they had seen Hailey guarding the Goblet of Fire, they had gone into the Great Hall to have breakfast; there was no way on Earth that Theodore would get past her.

Suddenly, Goyle looked up. “The Boss is guarding the Object,” he muttered.

Crabbe nodded. “The Antagonist will try to hurt the Boss,” he answered- and the two of them promptly piled the last of their scrambled eggs onto their toast and got up from the table as one. They had gotten into a bit of a habit of using codewords by now; it let them communicate important things about secret things… while merely sounding stupid, which was just fine in their books. If they were completely honest, they didn’t care what other people thought of them, only what the Boss thought of them.

Crabbe led the way out to the Entrance Hall. He then allowed Goyle to lead him off to the side, over to the best spot for them to watch what was going on.

The scene before them was largely uninteresting… for a short time. Theodore kept trying to get past Silversong, but the girl was much too fast for him- and the few times he tried to charge her, she’d merely danced around to the far side of the Goblet of Fire and watched amusedly while he balanced on the very edge of the age line for a few seconds.

However, as her tenure around the Goblet drew past a half an hour, more and more people were showing up… and the more and more violent things were getting.

Finally, Silversong had been at the Goblet for nearly fifty minutes when the first spell was hurtled at her. It hit her from behind- and her robe split wide open at the shoulder.

“The fight has begun,” Crabbe and Goyle muttered, as one. They watched as Pansy Parkinson, taking advantage of the seconds in which Silver was distracted checking the damage to her clothes, threw a piece of parchment into the Goblet of Fire. The wad of parchment bounced off the lip, flew up… then dropped inside.

“The Boss has been entered,” Goyle growled.

“The Boss has been entered,” Crabbe repeated, cracking his knuckles.

“The Wheeze approaches,” Goyle noted suddenly.

Crabbe nodded. “Count,” he requested.

Goyle spoke so rapidly it sounded almost like dialtone.

Halfway across the room from them, Theodore pointed his wand at Silversong. “Diffindo!”

At the same time, Pansy Parkinson raised her wand to speak an incantation.

Very suddenly, the two boys spoke simultaneously.

“Wheeze,” Goyle announced.

“Competitor,” Crabbe announced.

Then, they both vanished into thin air.

Moments later, Theodore’s bright red spell bolt vanished into thin air, and Crabbe was right up in Pansy Parkinson’s face- but, very carefully, not touching her. “Do you mind if I punch you?” He asked.

Pansy sputtered incoherently for a second. “What?” she finally asked- but Crabbe didn’t need to touch her, only to distract her. The deed was done- and he vanished again.

Then, the two boys both appeared, as if out of thin air, in front of Silver, just outside the Age Line, facing Theodore and cracking their knuckles.

Pansy raised her wand, pointed it at Silver’s back, and muttered her incantation.

“Diffindo.”

Her wand instead emitted a loud squawk and turned into a giant rubber chicken.

She screamed in fright, and fell over backwards.

“Hi,” someone said, at Theodore’s elbow.

The effect was comical. Slytherins, including Theodore but neither Crabbe nor Goyle, scattered away from the girl like she was carrying a plague.

As for Sadarina herself, she only smiled amusedly, casually holding a foot-long rod of bright red light in her hand like a wand.

“Wha- Where’s Hailey?” Theodore asked.

“Not needed,” another girl said, from inches behind him. When he whirled around, it was to find that there was noone there- until Bonbon swept her Invisibility Cloak off and smiled. “Detention, Nott.”

Meanwhile, a very different face appeared over Pansy. “Pansy Parkinson,” she muttered. “Did you just put Silver’s name into the Goblet of Fire?”

Pansy scrambled to her feet to face Morning Sun on the same level. “No,” she stated.

Morning raised an eyebrow.

Pansy flinched, then shrank away from her. “Y-Yes,” she squeaked. “I did.”

Morning sighed. “Detention,” she said. “Seven o’clock, every evening, starting tomorrow, for two hundred and twenty four detentions. You will be notified of what you will be doing the morning of each detention.”

Back in front of Silver, Crabbe mentally nodded to himself. Everything had gone off without a hitch. Goyle had captured Theodore’s spell and given it to Sadarina, who had been walking over. While Crabbe had been distracting Pansy, Goyle had stolen her wand, leaned it against the podium holding the Goblet of Fire, purchased a fake wand from the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes as the two boys walked down the staircase, and inserted it into Pansy’s hand in place of her real wand. Morning Sun and Bonbon hadn’t been part of the plan, but their presences had been welcome. Crabbe had gone on to buy a second fake wand from the Weasley Twins and replace Theodore’s wand with it while he was still scrambling away from Sadarina, before both boys had positioned themselves protectively in front of a very confused Silversong and dropped out of compressed time.

Three years and two months before, they had been assigned as bodyguards for one Draco Malfoy- and that duty did not end just because he turned himself into a Gryffindor girl. Instead, it became a covert assignment, rather than an overt one.

---

Hermione turned a page, slowly, in mid-air in front of her.

She normally liked to handle her books in her hands, but they were occupied with something else, so she’d resorted to magic. Similarly, she would normally read at least a dozen times faster- but even her mind was a little preoccupied.

She smiled, and yet again resisted the urge to kiss the top of Hailey’s head.

She’d taken Hailey up on her offer, of course. The two of them had undressed- again, in her case- and climbed into bed together. If she was entirely honest, she was pretty sure it was the first time she’d ever seen Hailey undressed; the girl had always been fully dressed by the time she came out around her curtains each morning.

Well, except for that time that she’d lifted her shirt up to ask for Hermione’s opinion on the bra her Aunt Petunia had gotten her.

A light giggle escaped Hermione’s lips at the memory. That had been early the year before, when Hermione had still been adjusting to Hailey’s sudden presence in her dormitory, and had still been enormously body-shy around her… yet Hailey hadn’t even bothered to blush. It was almost like her invulnerability even extended to embarrassment.

But she’d gotten over that… with Hailey. She’d managed to convince herself that the girl actually was just another girl, and warmed up to her… then she was pretty sure Hailey’s fearlessness had also bled off on her, because she used to be at least a little body-shy around other girls. Including her own mother, even!

To compound the issue, none of the other girls in the room had thought much of Hailey’s appearance- as a matter of fact, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil had even shared a knowing look… and it had taken them mere days to warm up to her, to Hermione’s months.

But of course, Hailey’s apparent body-shyness- in how she always dressed behind her curtains- was actually nothing of the sort. It was a habit. Now, as Hermione glanced down at her, and the peaceful smile on her face… She was just so cute like this. She smiled, hugging her gently and burying her face in Hailey’s hair again. When they had climbed into bed, Hailey had curled up against her side… but now, they were fully tangled in one another’s limbs, necessitating the magical manipulation of the book that she sometimes went minutes without looking at.

Silversong, of course, was a completely different story. She’d joined the dormitory just this year… and she was still body-shy around her. She had to force herself to not make sure the curtains on Silver’s side of her bed were closed when she was getting dressed; Silver was no less of a girl and, as a case in point, was absolutely not body-shy. Silver always dressed with her curtains wide open, not a care in the world… and unlike with Hailey, speculation was almost rampant amongst the four other cisgender girls in their dormitory. None of them knew who she used to be, though they all seemed to know she hadn’t always been a girl. Hermione had to concede that it wasn’t exactly a hard conclusion to reach, even though both Hailey and Silversong seemed to be eternally amused whenever it came up.

Naturally, for Silver’s first night in the dormitory, she’d joined Hailey on her bed. Hermione hadn’t seen what they’d been up to, but judging by the giggling, it had been more fun than… naughty. She hadn’t missed Silver walking back to her own bed to get dressed in the morning, wearing only her underwear… which she’d promptly stripped off to change it for the new day.

Hermione had been so jealous of her… but now, she knew, she shouldn’t have been.

She should have asked. Hailey would have gladly snuggled up with her- and, now that she was thinking about it, Silver probably would have as well!

She paused, looking at her book without seeing it. What about the rest? Morning Sun, Diamond Tiara, Ginny, Ariel, and Sadarina?

… She’d have to ask. Morning and Diamond would be a bit tricky at best, since they weren’t Gryffindors- but crossing into another year’s dormitory was perfectly OK, so the other three wouldn’t be difficult.

She smiled, hugging Hailey again, and this time actually kissed the top of her head.

Then, Hailey moved, and tightened her own hug.

“You know…” Hailey muttered.

Hermione’s breath caught. She was awake? She felt the heat rushing to her face. She’d thought she was asleep!

“Ever since Silver asked for permission to cuddle with me, I’ve been waiting for you to do the same.” Hailey sighed. “But it never came… so I instead looked for an opportunity to ask you myself. I mean, it’s not something a normal girl would think of, is it?” She raised her head to look up, into Hermione’s face, blinked, and grinned. “C’mere, you,” she muttered, her hands slipping up Hermione’s back- underneath her wings, causing a shiver to run up her spine. Less than a second later, she’d hooked her hands over Hermione’s shoulders, pulled herself even with her, stuck her nose next to Hermione’s, and- And-

Hermione’s brain had stopped working.

She snapped back to reality when Hailey laughed. It was another rare, real laugh- and as near as she could tell, the girl was laughing at her reaction. So, even though she could feel her face heating up like a stovetop, she also felt a balloon of happiness welling up inside her. She was making Hailey laugh!

Nevermind how surprisingly nice Hailey’s arms were against her back, underneath her wings.

She smiled, and worked her hands underneath Hailey’s wings as well… before pulling her closer for a second kiss. She held it for much longer than Hailey had- and when they broke, they were both giggling madly.

“Not with other girls,” Hermione muttered, then grinned. “Generally.”

Hailey laughed again.

Author's Note:

You know, this is something I've been waiting for for quite a while. Both major events in this chapter, actually- and at least some of you have been waiting for it for as long as I have. You see, I just don't do contrived stuff unless I absolutely have to.

Patreon, Discord. No, Discord, the old invite got deleted at some point.

Nothing new for patrons today, beyond a certain (fairly low) level. Why? I've been in a funk this last week, and haven't gotten anything done. It's the same reason Starbound Flight missed an update yesterday!

... Whoops, I take that back, it looks like 58 never made it to Patreon. I wonder how I missed that...?

Comments

[Melody Song]

Awwwwwwwwwww!

[Moonlight_Mist]

Is it weird that my favorite part of this chapter is Vin and Greg?

[Greenhorn]

The not-moronic Goyle and Crabble? That's really difficult to imagine.

[computerneek]

11146969
... I'm going to say no. That's where all the action is, after all.

The other part is a treat for those like Storyreader21 that looked forward to seeing that for the last fifty chapters... Though that particular person hasn't commented in thirty chapters, so I don't know if they're still reading/following or not.