A Lesson in Honesty
By Gomenace
Disclaimer: The universe of Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. I am merely borrowing her characters to escape reality and have some fun. I make no money on any of my writings.
Warnings: Language; some swearwords might occur, lots of bickering between Ron and Hermione. Perhaps a bit OOC-ness in the end, but it is necessary for the ending I want.
A/N: Plot bunnies have been attacking me, as I go to bed lately and I've taken to writing down my ideas, so that I can get inspiration from them later on. This is the result of one such bunny. I really hope you enjoy this! It's my first one-shot, and as I don't read many one-shots myself I actually found it quite hard to write.
The story is OotP-compliant, but cannot be added to the story line in Harry's actual sixth year, as there is no mentioning of Umbridge anywhere and Snape still teaches potions in my story. Please allow me these small changes.
A Lesson in Honesty
As a unity, the entire student body of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry filled into the halls, drastically increasing the noise level while the students flowed towards the Great Hall as a giant human stream; the house elf-prepared lunch being the target of the many young people. This occurrence in itself was common (as it happened every day during the school year), but something was different from other Thursdays of the year; the difference was, however, only obvious if your knew the schedule of a particular group of sixth year Slytherin and Gryffindor students that would normally spend their mornings in the transfiguration classroom on Thursdays. Even so, on this very day that group of students – while still heading for the Great Hall – were neither coming from the direction of the transfiguration classroom, nor had either one of them seen Professor McGonagall since breakfast that same morning.
The group consisted of all together eleven students from the two houses; seven Gryffindors and four Slytherin. The Golden Trio was among the Gryffindors along with Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Parvati Patil. The Slytherin house was represented by it's very own ice prince, Draco Malfoy, followed closely by Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson and Gregory Goyle. Goyle's appearance in the NEWT-level transfiguration class had caused quite a stir among the Gryffindors in the beginning of the year as they had thought him inseparable from Vincent Crabbe (and, moreover, they thought both of them incapable of during anything on advanced level apart from beating people up on Malfoy's orders).
As the group (or actually the two groups as there wasn't – nor had there been - any interaction between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors, apart from glares that is) reached the Great Hall, the students went to sit at their house tables. All the while discussing the lesson that they had just witnessed and the tasks that they had been given.
"Bloody hell, this is just what we needed," grumbled Ron as he sat down at the Gryffindor table with his two best friends. "both the professor and the lesson was bullocks. I can't believe that we have to take this class at all."
"Honestly, Ron. You just don't like that you have to notice other people to complete the tasks." She sat down with a small huff of annoyance, already tired of listening to Ron's complains. At least, she thought, he can't make me do it for him this time.
"That's not it, Hermione! It's just that I don't see how this is going to help us." He began to fill his plate with everything within his reach, while he continued speaking. "Come on! That woman can't be sane; 'What you will learn from my lessons, is the greatest weapon any man can ever get!" He said the last part while mimicking their guest professor's high-pitched voice.
"Ronald! Honesty is important, professor Ketteridge is right." She shot a look at his plate that now held a mountain of food, which Ron was apparently trying to stuff into his face all a once. "And if you were capable of concentrating on anything other than food, you wouldn't find it so hard to complete the tasks before the next lesson! You have an entire week."
Ron stopped adding food to his mouth for just a second, while shooting Hermione a dark look. "It's not that I can't complete the tasks! It's just that I won't! I think they are stupid, but of course you wouldn't think so, because a professor asked you to do them."
At Ron's comment, Hermione's lips thinned dangerously as she sat her glass down. "I can disagree with professors just fine, Ron, but I only do so, when it is justified. You get furthest in life with honesty, which is what the professor is trying to teach us. When you are honest, you have nothing to fear. Harry agrees with me. Right, Harry?" She turned her heard towards the dark haired third of the trio that had kept silent during their discussion, so as to not pick sides.
When their attention turned towards him, Harry let out a sigh and pushed his barely touched plate away from him. "I agree on the point that honesty is important," At Ron's hurt look, he got up from the table and looked away. "But a fat, lot of good it did Sirius. Honesty didn't save him from 12 years in Azkaban and I think he feared that place quite a lot." With these words, he picked up his book bag and turned towards his friends again. "I forgot my charms essay in the dormitory. I'll go get it and meet you in the next class."
"But, Harry, we don't have Charms today and .. " Before she finished her statement, Harry was out the door and she was left staring after him, while not saying anything for a while. When she did talk again, her voice was laced with concern as she spoke to Ron; their earlier argument completely forgotten. "What happened to him? I didn't realize that Sirius' death was still tormenting him that much."
Ron shrugged at her, while grabbing a couple of sausages, wrapping them in napkins for later during Binns' History of Magic class. "Maybe something on the table reminded him of Sirius, you know? Like the sausages; we had sausages sometimes at Grimmauld Place, while we stayed there over Christmas break last year."
"Yes, perhaps you are right." Hermione nodded, while thinking that it was highly unlikely that Harry would connect memories to food. Ron, certainly, but not Harry. "Anyway, it's only half an hour before the next class. He probably needs some time alone."
The rest of the meal passed quietly as the incomplete trio finished eating and subsequently prepared themselves for their next class; Hermione by reading over her notes once more and Ron by taking a short nap.
In an unused classroom nearby, Harry was leaning heavily on the door with his eyes closed. He let himself slide down the door, until he hit the floor and placed his elbows on his knees. His thoughts were not – as his friends anticipated – focused on his late godfather, but instead on his own annoyance at his friend's constant banters. While thinking of his godfather still left him with a raw feeling of loss, he had come a long way in accepting his own role in the fugitive's death since the summer, which made it a lot easier to deal with the memory of the man. Harry stayed in this position until he was nearly late for the History of Magic lesson and earned himself a reprimanding look from Hermione, when he entered the classroom at the same time as the ghost teacher came floating through the opposite wall.
Soon the monotone voice of professor Binns had lulled the class to sleep (with the exception of Hermione, of course), with Ron only waking up half way through the lesson to gobble the sausages he brought for this very purpose.
* * * *
When Harry woke the next morning his muscles were sore from the brutal quidditch practice that begun right after the end of their afternoon classes and lasted until eight o'clock in the evening; guaranteeing a massive visit to the kitchens afterwards as the team members had missed dinner. Harry enjoyed flying, but he sometimes regretted that the team had given the position of quidditch captain to one of the remaining seventh years on the team, Angelina Johnson; their practices were always all about competing and never about enjoying the flight.
Harry got out of bed and dressed quietly, while keeping half an eye on Ron. Friday mornings were "enjoyed" in the dungeons with Snape and since Ron didn't take this class he always slept in on Fridays (though Hermione would reprimand him, if she knew). When he was ready, he went down to join Hermione for breakfast. This, however, would turn out harder to accomplice than first anticipated, which Harry first noted, when he came down the stairs from the boys' dormitories.
The common room was unusually full this morning and as he stepped into the room, a silence fell over the large group. As one, they focussed their attention fully on him, making him squirm uncomfortably, while urgently searching for Hermione among his other housemates. When he failed to find her, he smiled nervously and inched his way along the wall, closer to the portrait-covered entrance. "Ehm, have you .. seen Hermione?" Nobody answered immediately, but he thought he heard one of the third years girls sitting in the sofa in front of the fire muttering "You cannot use her; that would be chea .." She stopped suddenly as her friend elbowed her in the side. Cheating? What would I use Hermione for? Harry groaned inwardly, when realization hit him. The tasks that he had happily forgotten about during the night. The task they had been given the day before; to criticise a friend on something they have done repeatedly and complement someone you do not know on something you have noticed about them. While Harry realized that he could not use Hermione for the last part, he failed to see, why the rest of the Gryffindors took an interest in how he completed the tasks. He didn't get further with his thought as he was unexpectedly grabbed by the arm and dragged out of the room. It took him a moment to recognize Hermione's frizzy hair, but when he did; his face broke into a big grin.
"Thanks, Mione. I love you, you know."
Hermione smiled happily at him and nodded repeatedly. "Oh, I know. I've saved you too many times for you not to." She slowly loosened her grip on his arm, but did not let go completely.
"What was that, Hermione? Is something happening today? I should have woken Ron, if it's something important, I .." As soon as he had said those words, he spotted his mistake. Hermione was standing stiffly by his side.
"He's not awake?"
Harry fidgeted slightly and took his lower lip between his teeth. "Well .. I didn't mean to say that he .. that is .. he's reading in his bed." He looked anywhere but at Hermione, silently willing her to believe him, as it was otherwise going to cause yet another argument between his two friends.
Hermione sighed and started walking again, still not letting go of his arm, which Harry took as a good sign. "You are a terrible liar, Harry, but as a friend I can appreciate that you still make an effort when needed." She padded his hand and the walked silently for a while. That is, until Hermione turned towards Harry again with a huge smile on her face, which frightened him a bit. "Harry! I just criticized you! You are a terrible liar! I've completed half the assignment."
Harry smiled at her and nodded briefly before producing his wand from his pocket to transfigure a small black marble with his name on it from a piece of paper that he found in his bag. He handed the marble to Hermione, who took it – still smiling broadly – and placed it in her inner pocket. "Now I just need to collect a white marble from a random student that I compliment. That is the easy part. Well, for me it is." She said the last part while sniggering lightly, which was very un-Hermione-like and Harry stared at her with a confused look.
Hermione sighed for the second time in the past ten minutes. "You are so oblivious, Harry. What do you really think all of those people were doing in the common room?" She did not have to look to know that Harry was wearing his clueless face, which she found rather adoring under normal circumstances, but slightly unnerving this morning. How could he not realize that more than half the school (both females and males) had the hots for him?
"Is it a Hogsmeade-weekend?" He stopped dead when they neared the entrance to the Great Hall and he caught sight of an even bigger crowd. "Here too?" He unconsciously moved closer to the wall, so he was hidden in the shadow. He then sought out Hermione's face by his side and turned even more confused, when he realized that she was trying – unsuccessfully – to cover her laughing. "Mione?" He let a slight whine slip into his voice, while looking hopefully at her to let her know that he needed her to answer the questions.
She finally pulled herself together and shook her head. "No, Harry. They are all hoping to be on the receiving end, when you complete the second part of your tasks." Harry stared at her for a long time, completely shell shocked. "Please tell me you are joking, Mione." Again, she shook her head and sent a look towards the waiting masses.
"Ready, Harry? You might as well get it over with. They are going to stay there for as long as it takes for you to arrive anyway."
Harry did not feel ready in the slightest, but followed behind her nonetheless. It was a technique they had developed over the past nearly six years of friendship; she (or Ron, or both) would walk in front, dividing the people, which always reminded Harry of Moses dividing the Waters of the red sea. Harry followed her closely, evading all the hands that tried to grab him from all directions.
When they finally entered the Great Hall, Harry immediately caught sight of Malfoy, since he was the only one already in the hall. Well, in truth he was not the only one, as his closest friends along with a couple of admirers surrounded him. Malfoy seemed to ignore everyone around him, while his friends kept sending dark looks at the admirers, who in turn refused to leave.
Harry suddenly felt slightly better, when he realized that at least one other person shared his predicament, and with these thoughts Harry sat down to begin his meal as well as ignoring his own group of persistent admirers.
Later that day, at lunch – as Harry had predicted – Hermione and Ron got into yet another argument over the Ron-sleeping-in-on-Fridays-issue and Harry ended up leaving early again. He spent the rest of his lunch break as well as his following free lesson reading in a book about famous quidditch players in the unused classroom that he had found the previous day. In reality, he had wanted to rejoin his friends for the free period, since he knew that the argument would be over by then. Unfortunately, his plans were prevented by a huge mob of girls and even a few boys that shrieked (well, the shrieking was mostly done by the girls) as soon as they saw him exiting the room and thereby forced him to escape back into the sanctuary of the class room.
The rest of the day went largely uneventful except for a couple of incidents, where Harry was assaulted by yet another horde of admirers. Both Ron and Hermione stayed close by him at all times, as people tended to stay away when the trio was together. Harry tried to make Hermione explain to him, what the admirers thought they would gain from getting a simple compliment from him, but she steadfastly refused to discuss the subject, claiming that he was obtrusively naïve and therefore would not understand it, even if she spelled it for him. Moreover, when Harry, in desperation, turned towards Ron for help, his best friend just shrugged; letting Harry know that he did not have the answer.
* * * *
Four days later found two-thirds the Golden Trio on its way to a double lesson in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Hermione had left the group earlier to research something in the library and this gave Ron and Harry time to discuss their assignments for professor Ketteridge, since Hermione – being Hermione – finished with the tasks during the weekend. Ron had – surprisingly – already done the complement-a-stranger-task, while Harry had yet to do either of them.
"Come on, Harry! Half the school is begging you to complement them; just choose one and be done with it!" Ron sent a grin in Harry direction, before he spoke again. "You don't really have to say something real, you know. Pick a girl and tell her that she has nice hair. She'll give you a marble, no problem. You're the Harry Potter!"
"You walked up to a girl and the first thing you noticed was her nice hair? That doesn't seem like you, Ron."
"Well, I might have said something ells at first, but that didn't go overly well .. " When Harry looked questioningly at Ron, he was surprised to see that Ron looked decidedly embarrassed and turned redder by the second.
"What did you say?"
"I might have said that shehadanicearse .. "
".. what?"
"She did, Harry! She had a nice arse!"
Harry started laughing uncontrollably and did not stop even when Ron hit him on the shoulder out of sheer embarrassment. "W-what did she say?" He tried to control his laughing, but could not avoid letting go of several sniggers, when he caught sight of Ron's red cheeks.
"Well, she didn't say anything actually. She just .. hit me and went away." Ron shot Harry a dark look, when another snigger escaped. "I'm glad you are enjoying my situation!"
"Come now. It's funny, Ron. Neither of us has ever been good with girls, and you know it."
A small smile appeared on Ron face, because of the memories from forth year that Harry comment brought forth. "Yeah, you're right. But I'm better than you, 'cause I've got a marble."
"True, but I haven't been hit." One more snigger.
"Oh, cut it out, Harry!"
"Sorry."
They stopped, when they got to the moving staircases and had to wait for a staircase that took them to the right floor. While they waited, Ron kept his eyes on the staircases. "Why, Harry? Why don't you just pick one?" When no immediate response was forthcoming, he turned to look at Harry. "I don't get it. Every girl in this school would be overjoyed to give you a stupid marble with their name on it."
Harry still didn't answer, but look thoughtful for a while. "I don't know." He moved his weight a little to get a better grip on his bag. "It just seems wrong to pick just one. I mean, according to Hermione it would really mean a lot to them that I complemented them and accepted their marble and .. picking just one over all the others just seems .. wrong, even mean. I can't do it."
Ron put his arm around Harry's shoulders as they went up the staircase that arrived moment earlier. "You know what? You just helped me solved the last of my tasks." Harry looked rather surprised at Ron at this statement, but did not say anything, as he knew that Ron would give an explanation.
"You take on too much guilt, mate. You feel responsible toward everybody. You really don't have to; no one will blame you. Criticizing a friend, there you have it."He looked strangely proud as he finished this statement, but Harry still did not answer, since he could feel that Ron had more to say. Instead Harry took some time to consider this critique and compare it to that of Hermione. "I'm sorry, mate, that it had to be you, but you know Hermione; she would skin me alive if I criticised without prober reasoning and Merlin only knows what proper reasoning is to her! It depends on her bloody mood!"
Harry let Ron's words sink in, before he said anything back. "Our complements and critique were supposed to be based on our own observations, not necessarily anything ells."
"Yeah, I know. It's just that .. it's easier this way, right?" The hopefully look in Ron's eyes made Harry furrow his brows and reminded him of the argument between Ron and Hermione on the day that assignment was given. Harry was beginning to see, why Ron had a problem with completing a task in honesty and filed this knowledge away for later. Instead of commenting, he just inclined his head and produces another black marble with his wand.
Ron was slipping the marble inside the pocket of his robes, when the two boys were suddenly joined by an angrily muttering Hermione. "I can't believe .. the book said .. ridiculous, really .. I did it correctly! I am sure!" She pushed her hair behind her shoulder with a short, slashing motion, which clearly indicated her mood. "Honestly! I don't .. can't be serious .. giving me an A, an A! .. don't care .. going to Headmaster .. " It seemed like she could go on forever and for a few minutes neither of the boys interrupted her; instead opting for letting her blow of a little steam, before attempting a conversation with her.
When it became obvious that Ron would not try to break her rambling, Harry took it upon himself and asked her the same question as they always did in these situations. "What's wrong, Hermione?"
She started moving faster as if she could run away from whatever happened, all the while glaring at seemingly nothing. "I got an A! In Muggle Studies! I know I'm right; I was brought up as a muggle!"
Harry tightened his jaw slightly at this comment, but let it slide.
"I'm going to talk to Headmaster Dumbledore as soon as our classes are over!"
"Hermione!"He simply could not let the second comment slide as well. "Will you please listen to yourself for one second?" Both Ron and Hermione seemed taken aback with Harry's sudden outburst. "Corrections are not final! Corrections are given so you can become better. Getting an A during the school year will not destroy your future. Consider critique a compliment of sorts, a sign that people care enough to take the time to correct you, when you are wrong. If a professor truly didn't care for his students, he would give them all top marks - they wouldn't stand a chance at the exams then, because they wouldn't have had the guidelines that corrections are to perfect their knowledge."
Hermione was now staring at him with her mouth open. Ron didn't look much better, but at least he managed to collect his jaw, when Harry turned towards him instead.
"And, Ron .. " He held up a hand to silence Hermione, who had finally found her voice again and wanted to correct Harry's assumptions. "No, Mione. My critique is not up for discussion. Just think about it." He said this without looking at her and instead kept his eyes on Ron, who looked like he had a hard time deciding who to support in this matter. "Ron, honesty is not always pleasant, but if your best mate can't be honest with you, who can? Do you really think that a bit of critique is going to destroy our friendship?" He shot Hermione up with a look, when she once again tried to interrupt him. "I haven't been honest myself lately, and I regret that. I hate listening to your arguments concerning irrelevant things all the time. I should have told you so from the beginning. I get head aches and become decidedly nauseous, when you suddenly but me in the middle of your bickering. I'm not saying that you can't argue, but please leave me out of it .. "
"Harry, what are .. "
"No, Mione. Please, just .. think about it. We can talk about it tonight. All I'm asking is to give it some time."
"Alright, mate. We'll talk about it later."
Harry could not help smiling a little at his friend. "Thanks, Ron. That's all I'm asking. That, and two black marbles." The last part brought a grin on Ron's face. He was somewhat glad that they were about to reach the Defence Against the Dark Arts class room; he was not sure that he could handle more arguments at the time.
"But, Harry, you still have to get a white marble as well! It's really important to leave a good impression with the guest professors; they might become our censors, when we take our NEWTs next year."
Harry felt the inclination to roll his eyes, but suppressed the urge. His eyes reached for the DADA door, behind which he hoped to find at least a resemblance of peace. When his eyes glided down the hall, however, he caught sight of something ells entirely. His mood suddenly rose several degrees and he felt a smile break out on his lips even before an impulsive idea took form within his head. Maybe it was his Gryffindor courage, maybe it was pure rebelliousness or maybe it was just Harry being Harry.
"Oy, Malfoy!"
"Harry! What are you .. " Hermione never got further, as Malfoy turned towards them, one eyebrow slightly raised, his eyes slowly skimming over the Gryffindors in a calculating way. He looked somewhat uneasy until he found rest in Harry's green eyes, where – unexpectedly – no malice awaited him.
"Yeah?"
"You've got a nice arse." Shocked silence in the hall.
"I know. So do you, Potter."
Two white marbles were given and accepted after this exchange of words.
The End
A/N: Please tell me, if I need to describe the tasks that professor Ketteridge asked the students to complete better. Then I will rewrite parts of the story. As mentioned in the beginning, this is the result of a sudden plot-bunny, and I wrote it without an actual idea of how I wanted the story to go. I hope you enjoyed reading it!
Please review and let me know what you think!HH