"You'd better sit still and enjoy."
"Unless you've got a masterful prank planned..."
"...which we doubt, but miracles do happen..."
"...but don't you dare ruin our betting pool."
"Pranks? Betting? What are you two talking about?" asked Ron.
"Keep it down, Ron! We can't wake them up now..."
"...so have a gander yourself while they're still napping, yeah?"
His view was blocked by a crowd of Gryffindors who were all encircling the couch in front of the fireplace. Most of them were girls, whispering to each other and giggling, especially Parvati and Lavender. A very hushed murmur was going through the entire group. Pushing his way through, he could see a mop of messy black hair on the side of the couch. Is that Harry? He turned to Neville and asked him, "Is that Harry? Why's he sleeping down here?"
Neville looked at him and replied, "Oh... uh... maybe you should take a closer look... but before you do, I have to ask you something."
"Huh? What do you want to know?"
"Did you see Harry come up to bed last night?"
"Uh... no, I didn't," Ron answered. He must have come back to the tower really late... good thing he had the map handy. "He must have been doing something late last night, sneaking around the castle or something."
"Ohhh, so Harry didn't come up to bed, either?" Lavender cut in. "Well, I think that confirms it." She turned to Parvati, giggling like mad. Whispering to the group of girls behind her, most of them suddenly squealed in delight... except for one Ginny Weasley, who looked shocked, and quickly bolted towards the girls' dorm stairs.
Why do those girls keep giggling so much? Ron took another step closer, and saw a large, bushy mass of brown hair snuggled right in Harry's lap.
"WHAT?" Ron couldn't help but shout at the top of his lungs at the sight. Of course, given where he was standing, he was practically yelling that into Harry's ear. That caused him to jerk awake flailing his limbs, throwing Hermione off his lap. Hermione, of course, did very nearly the same thing, and the two of them tumbled off the couch in a messy pile.
The questions descended on them before they even knew what was going on. Ron was swept aside in the wave of gossipmongers.
"So, Harry, how long has this been going on?"
"Hermione! Tell us everything! Is Harry a good kisser?"
"How late were the two of you up last night?"
"Where were you two doing it? I didn't- I mean, nobody saw you at the Astronomy tower."
"Couldn't you two have hooked up next year? Bollocks, I was only a few months off... never figured the two of you would have moved so quickly."
Harry realized he was being gawked at by about half of Gryffindor tower at that moment. To his left were dozens of girls from second, third, and fourth year, and a few older ones as well. The looks on their faces ranged from delight to disappointment, and most of them seemed to be very talkative. On his right were Seamus, Dean, and Neville, his dorm-mates; the Weasley twins, grinning maniacally as usual; Ron, looking stunned; and Colin Creevy, clicking away at his camera.
"Colin! What are you doing? Why are you taking pictures of me?"
"Actually, Harry, he's not taking pictures of you... well, not only you," George answered for Colin, as the little boy scrambled away to avoid Harry's wrath.
Hermione, who had been completely silent up to this point, let out a small "eep." She was blushing furiously. Harry turned to face her when he heard the squeak. Looking back at George, he asked, "You haven't answered my question. Why are you taking pictures of us?"
"Well, that's obvious," answered Fred.
"We need evidence."
"Records."
"Proof."
"We can't have people disputing the fact that the two of you are together, can we?"
"WHAT?" Harry and Hermione managed to shout in unison. "What makes you think that we're together?" asked Harry. Hermione managed to keep quiet, her eyes darting from the people, to the couch, to Harry, to Colin's camera, back to Harry...
"Well, Harry. You and Hermione were both up late last night, weren't you?" asked George.
"Err... yes..."
"And you were together, weren't you? Where were you to spending such a lovely evening?" asked Fred.
Harry looked at Hermione. He couldn't possibly tell everyone here about the Chamber. And he was such a horrible liar, especially under pressure like this. He replied with the only thing he can think of. "Um... we can't tell you."
"Perfectly understandable, Harry. There's no reason to share all the fine details with us. But do tell, how did the two of you end up on the couch here?" Back to George again. How did they keep coordinating things like this?
"We didn't sleep together here!"
"It sure looked like sleeping to us, Harry. You looked pretty comfortable there. We're pretty sure you just got up from an episode of sleep, not fainting."