"Seamus, put me down!"

"If yeh don't stop wigglin', am likely to drop yeh, girl."

"Don't call me girl. And put me down." To emphasize her words, Hermione wiggled more and swatted at his back.

"Buggering fucking hell." That exclamation should have indicated something bad was about to happen, but it was too fast for her to prepare. Instead, she suddenly found herself landing hard on the muddy ground as Seamus fell on top of her.

"Ow." Well, that certainly wasn't very intelligent sounding.

"Did warn yeh," he mumbled as he reached up to push his hair back from his forehead. The rain had darkened it, which she found more fascinating than she should, especially considering the circumstances.

"Don't make this my fault, Finnigan," she warned. She sat up and rubbed her back, grimacing when she felt the mud on her fingers and ache in her bottom from where she landed so hard. "If you hadn't rudely picked me up in the middle of a party, in front of my friends, I might add, and carried me off like you were a Neanderthal, we wouldn't be here now."

"You were flirting," he said stubbornly. "Saw yeh touching him while you were laughing."

She blinked at him and then scowled. "Let me see if I understand. You carried me out of the pub because you thought I was flirting? What would it matter if I was? I'm single and women do flirt, you know?"

"You don't!" He glared at her and hit his hand on the ground, splashing them both with rain and mud.

"Maybe I do," she challenged, glaring back at him. When he didn't say or do anything, she felt the fight leave her. It was obvious that she'd been wrong about why he might care, which made her feel even more humiliated after all of this. "Get up. I need to go back."

Instead of arguing, Seamus just obeyed, moving back until she was able to shift her feet out from under him. She looked at him for a moment before she sighed. It was rainy, muddy, and her back hurt, so she planned to go back to the pub for her cloak and just head home where a warm bath and ice cream would be waiting for her. She started to stand up but he reached for her wrist and tugged, causing her to fall against him. Before she could yell at him, he kissed her.

It was a hesitant kiss, and he pulled back quickly and looked at her as if he expected to be hexed. Rain was dripping down his cheeks, his lips were parted, and his cheeks were flushed, which was only fair because her own cheeks were flushed. She saw him start to speak, so she leaned forward and kissed him, not sure she wanted to hear excuses or apologies. When he started to kiss her back and tangled his muddy fingers in her hair, she realized that maybe she had been right all along.

End