Harry Potter was walking down the stairs in the Great Hall, growing ever more suspicious of the events of the last few weeks. Especially of those that are surrounding his one time friend. Hermione.
Not that they still were not friends of course, they were. Just that she was acting very funny toward him, one could call it 'passes' but with her growing relationship with Ron, and her steadiness toward him in the past, Harry refused to believe this. Even though those were what his senses were telling him.
He was trying to find an outlet for these thoughts.
And just his luck he was approaching behind one now. "Ginny! Hey Ginny, wait up!" He called to her. She spun around on him, and smiled thinly at him.
"Hey Harry." She greeted warmly.
He decided to get straight to the punch as the two of them started to walk together. "Have you noticed anything odd about Hermione lately?"
"No, not at all."
"Really. But she seems so flirty, and so this, and so close to Ron. It almost seems like she does not really care about her school work any more."
"This is Hermione we are talking about."
"I know, but she doesn't, everything seems off about her recently."
She rounded it on him, moved in close to him, too close, her upper leg was resting almost imperceptibly against his. Harry had to do a double take, fighting with both his own personal feelings, and the sudden worry about both her and Hermione that was welling up inside of him.
"Relax Harry. She is fine, in fact she is more then fine." She then smiled at him. "And so am I by the way."
She said walking off leaving him feeling stunned, he walked into the Great Hall for Dinner in a complete haze. He may have even walked into people on his way down.
He entered the room and his vision cleared a little. Hermione and Ron were holding hands while eating under the table. Some students were moving around giving him odd looks. He had not drawn this much attention to himself since his name came out of the goblet those years ago. Now an era ago as far as he was concerned. It was like his world was being turned upside down and torn apart. It no longer made any sense. His friends that were with him throughout all of history, even when he acted so much bad at them, they always came back to him. And now they were becoming so much more used to each other, he felt like an outsider in some sick game that everyone else was playing around him. The good news was that Draco seemed to be as baffled as he was.
He sat down on the other end of the table, away from the two 'love birds' right next to Fred and George, afraid to start a conversation with them and find out that they were acting strangely as well. Colin was sitting across from him.
He started to eat every once and awhile looking up at the head table. Especially at Dumbledor, seeing if he could see any sign that he knew that something was wrong.
Dumbledor seemed like he did not sense anything was wrong, he was chatting with Flitwick his fork suspended in his hand before him.
And then he stopped, dropped his fork on his plate and stared around suspiciously, and cautiously. His gaze taking in the entire Great Hall, Harry could swear that his eyes were narrowed at this instance.
So he was onto something.
The meal finished and Harry marched up to his room, and then started to do what Home Work that he had to do for the next couple of hours.
He then went to bed confident that he could talk to Dumbledor tomorrow when they met each other for another one of their sessions.
The day dawned bright, and Harry ran down the steps and rushed through his breakfast in order to get to Dumbledor as fast as he can. Everyone was giving him looks. Mainly Ron and Hermione who he was sitting next to. She knew that something of his was up.
Harry finished his meal and rushed to Dumbledor's office, forgetting to check to see if he was even off the table yet.
He had to wait for a couple of minutes pacing outside of his office nervously wondering where he was.
"Harry?" He said coming up behind him gently.
"Professor!" Harry yipped enthusiastically, which reminded him of where Dumbledor had to have been.
"Come on in Harry." He said as he entered the password and they both went up the stairs to his office.
"To begin today Harry-"
"Professor, I need to talk to you about something else."
He paused for a second, worry starting to creep into his features, he steepled his fingers on his desk and stared at Harry intently.
"Well, it's just like this. Both Hermione, and now Ginny…and well several other students are acting really odd. They are acting all flirty."
"They are teenagers Harry." He said with a crooked smile.
"I know this. But still, in the long run, she, and I mean Hermione sir is acting really odd. She is not even doing any of her Homework. McGonnagal is even asking me about it, she is about to ask you."
Dumbledor seemed to age an entire extra year in front of him. "I know Harry, I have been feeling heavy all week, like something is happening. But we must be careful, tonight we will confront them. But until then we must stay concealed as to our suspicions, who knows how many of them there actually are?"
"So you think that this is spreading?"
"Yes I do Harry. We need to be careful on this, if not, we will die. Or worse. Tonight Harry, no sooner."
"The last thing Professor. I have been voicing my suspicions around for a couple of days, so they might be on to me."
"Then avoid Gryfindor Tower. Good luck Harry."
Harry knew that there was something deeply wrong if he was wishing him work, but he left the office and moved to head down to Hagrid's.