Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Haha.

note: I apologize beforehand for any incorrect information because I mostly write anime fanfictions, not HP ones. :D And there is shoujo-ai in this story which is, girl/girl relationships. If you don't like, then don't read. Takes place around the time of their 5th year at Hogwarts.

Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 1

"Alright then, first yers gather o'er here!" bellowed Hagrid as frightened newcomers walked tentatively over to the enormous half-giant.

As the small students crowded around Hagrid, a few of them noticed a certain famous fifth year student. Multiple pairs of eyes followed him as he walked on to Hogwarts with his two friends beside him.

"Look, it's Harry Potter," whispered some of them. The mysterious, dark-haired boy with glasses and an unmistakable scar turned his head slightly to acknowledge some of the gossiping first years. He flashed a smile and some of the girls giggled before the girl with frizzy brown hair to his left grabbed his robe.

All of the students filed into the grand hall. Floating candles hovered at different heights above the different houses as everybody waited anxiously for Dumbledore to give his speech.

The bearded wizard, who's glimmering silver hair shone in the candlelight, stood up and clapped his hands.

"If I may have your attention please! I must say, it is wonderful to see so many fresh face as well as some old ones. This year shall be packed with new and exciting adventures…"

Ron yawned and started to nod off. Hermione gave him a sharp jab into the side as she told him to pay more attention to the speeches. "Honestly Ron, you never listen to anything the teachers say, let alone your friends."

He blinked a few times, and rubbed his eyes lazily, "…Uh…mm…oh, were you saying something Hermione?"

She sighed heavily and shook her head. "Ugh, men…" she muttered under her breath. Staring at the front of the grand hall, she watched in amusement as the sorting hat recited its yearly poem. Thank goodness there were no warnings at the end of this year's recital. She thought.

"Hey Harry, maybe when-" she glanced over to her left, but noticed that his attention was also starting to stray from the sorting hat. He seemed to be glancing over in the area of the Ravenclaw house, and more precisely, the area of Cho Chang. Nobody ever pays attention in the beginning anyways… thought Hermione dismally.

Nobody gives any recognition to the teachers. She looked around the room and noticed that practically all the students, including some of the first years that had already been sorted were starting to fall partially asleep.

"ZELLER, ROSE……HUFFLEPUFF" Professor McGonagall picked up the hat as the last person was sorted. Dumbledore smiled, stood up, and then clapped his hands rather loudly. "I see that the sorting hat has gathered the attention of so many of you, and so I propose that the food should be served right now."

Platters of food and drink appeared suddenly on every table and everybody woke up with the sight and smell of something to eat. Ron was piling food onto his plate as he noticed Harry just absentmindedly taking bites of a piece of rhubarb pie. He apparently didn't care the pie was usually for dessert, but he did seem to care about something interesting over in Ravenclaw.

"Jeez Harr', you donf stilf bike 'er, do you?" He said through a mouthful of food. Hermione grimaced as she attempted to wipe off the crumbs of food particles that speckled her robe's sleeve. "Ron! Bite, chew, swallow, then talk! Not bite, talk, spew food, chew, then swallow." She noticed Harry's head was off in the clouds as he put marmalade on his potato.

"Harry, I know you may be attracted to her, but remember, she still could be grieving over the loss of Cedric Diggory. I hope you still can recall last year's events at the Triwizard Cup Tournament…" she said quietly.

Harry's head snapped around, as he glared at her, "Of course I remember! It's impossible to forget something like that. It was devastating! Why would I not remember anyways? And don't understand like you know either."

Hermione just kept chewing her food slowly in silence.

As the large platters of food began to slowly diminish, time began to slowly fade into night.

"Prefects, please escort your houses to the proper dormitories. Do so with responsibility and the utmost care," said Dumbledore with a hint of seriousness behind the request.

Ron and Hermione, along with two other fellow Gryffindors, led the way for the group of people through the moving staircase room.

"Please be careful when using these stairs, for they move." Stated Hermione. Ron snickered, "Well of course they move, this is the moving staircase room." She stared him down. They finally arrived at a painting of a rather large lady eating some pie.

"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," said Ron. A plump finger shot up, "Just a minute young man! Can't you see I am enjoying some relatively delicious pie right at this instant?" said the painting through mouthfuls of food. Hermione coughed loudly and the fat lady stared at her.

"Mimbulus Mimbletonia." The fat lady grumbled and set aside her pie as she slid backwards letting the tired Gryffindors gain access to their beds.

Hermione took a seat in a comfortable chair next to the fire in the common room. She slumped into the cushions as she rubbed her temples. This year will be tough. With the O.W.L. and all of the classes we're all taking, I don't know how we'll manage to be able to stand let alone breath by the end of the year… Her thoughts were interrupted as Harry took a seat in the chair across from her.

He still had that glazed look in his eye and a childish grin played across his lips. Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh come on Harry, you're behaving like a giddy school girl just thinking about her. I'd say I'm just about to get rather ill. She's not exactly the best girl out there for you."

He hadn't looked up at her. The light from the embers in the fireplace danced in his eyes as he finally glanced in her direction. "Jealous are we? Hermione Granger, I never would have thought!"

Taken aback, her eyes grew wide with the accusation, "How can you think I like you? Oh, far from it Harry. Not that that I'm not your friend or anything, but let us just keep it at that, for both our sakes," she paused, "and our sanity as well." She added.

Ron walked up behind her and placed his arms on her shoulders, "How you doing grumpy face? Are you already telling Harry that he should be studying? Blimey, it's only the first day and we're being attacked." She rolled her eyes and grabbed a pillow, smacking Ron clean in the face.

Harry snapped out of his romantic trance and laughed at them. "Lets get some sleep for tomorrow, so we can actually pay attention in class."

Hermione beamed, "Really?"

"Nope."

Ron and Harry laughed hysterically as they walked to their dormitories for some rest. Hermione on the other hand, just sulked away, not wanting to believe that she had completely fallen for that headfirst.

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It had only been one month into the semester and Harry had already gotten chewed on and spat out by Professor Umbridge. He had been given a week's worth of detentions for defying her and also making 'false' claims about Voldemort. Hermione, though she did voice her opinion against Professor Umbridge, she never went as far as to upset her, let alone any other teacher in the whole school.

But this, this was ridiculous!

The three of them, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, were sitting once again in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the most absolute worst teacher ever to teach the class. She sat there silently grumbling to herself. A chapter could only be interesting for the first few times read, unless it was extremely interesting, but once it got to the point of rereading the same passages over for the 11th time, Hermione thought it was enough.

just can't possibly take this anymore! I am learning absolutely nothing, and we will never be able to actually practice any of the spells this tyrannical nutcase is teaching us. Why, if I even come close to failing or getting bad marks on my O.W.L. then…then…then I'll…

"Miss Granger! Would you please keep your head out of the sky and at least try and attempt to read the chapter. Well, that is, unless you are a slow reader, then you can always pick up the slack as homework," Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, "but that does not mean you are allowed to slack off. 5 Points from Gryffindor."

Malfoy and his crew of Slytherin friends snickered at the comment, and they were even heard whispering 'mudblood, mudblood, mudblood' in her direction. This is… it is totally and completely… ugh, "This is totally unacceptable and wrong! You can't just take points for something as petty and mundane as 'spacing out' as you say!" exclaimed Hermione.

Professor Umbridge just smiled her wicked, crooked smirk that made her look increasingly more like a lowly toad, "Watch me. 10 More points from Gryffindor for opposing a teacher in an uncalled for outburst. Are we clear Miss Granger?"

Through her clenched fists, she could hear Ron whispering to her, "It's not worth it, sit back down…"

Swallowing her pride, she sat back down, realizing that she had just made an irrational outbreak that was completely the opposite of how she normally acted.

Grinning over her small victory, the toad of a teacher turned back around and tapped the blackboard, "Now that that was out, please turn to page 256. There will be no need to talk."

That was it. Something had to be done, and a plan was already being formulated in Hermione's mind.

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Time went on, and the classes with Professor Umbridge were not any better. Harry still had to pay his detentions in her class writing lines with the horrid enchanted quill that cut deep into the hand.

It was after midnight as Harry came slowly walking into the Gryffindor common room. He slumped down into the inviting softness of the armchairs near the dying fire. Poking around the embers he stared at the red engraving on his hand. Professor Umbridge was a grade 'A' lunatic. What kind of a teacher punishes students by doing so horrid as using their own blood to write down lines?

Harry desperately wanted to get this teacher for the horrible fraud she was, and surprisingly, it was Hermione who came up with one of the best plans to deal with this lady. Suggesting assembling her and Ron to be taught by Harry the defense against the dark arts was a great idea. At first, Harry had been a bit skeptical about the whole idea, denying that most of his exploits in these past few years were merely a lucky break, a fluke. With enough coaxing however, they were able to persuade him to meet at The Hog's Head to see possible people who also wanted to learn how, and to protect themselves against the dark arts.

One by one, students from all houses except Slytherin came into the Hog's head, their faces darting left and right to see if they had come to the right place at the right time. As soon as they saw Hermione, they knew they came to the right place, and so they ordered a butterbeer and sat down at the table.

The last people to enter the muggy pub were Cho Chang and her friend Marietta, who was currently eyeing everyone suspiciously. Hermione took a seat next to Harry and carefully drank a sip of her butterbeer. She caught a glimpse of something shining and black movement to her left, and she noticed that Cho took a seat next to her.

Harry suddenly turned beat red as he realized who had decided to sit so close to him. "Err, um… yes, um… mostly being Hermione's idea… um… err, we uh… decidedtoseehowmanyofyouguyswanttolearnhowtodefendyourselvesagainstthedarkarts!" he said nervously.

"Blimey, slow down there Harry. Talk slower. It's okay, we're all friends here I think, no need to be rushing about anything." Said Ron.

Hermione sighed at the incapacitated Harry and decided to speak, since he was evidently incapable with Cho in his presence, "What Harry said was that, due to something that I asked him, he would teach us, and help us practice, defense against the dark arts. I certainly do not want to fail my O.W.L. just because some incompetent teacher like Professor Umbridge cannot teach, and will not let us practice in class." Hermione looked at the other students and felt triumphant.

And also suddenly very nervous as Cho and her made direct eye contact and she smiled warmly. Hermione, normally so cool, calm, and collected, was caught off guard and suddenly flushed a deep crimson in some weird sudden embarrassment.

"Well, uh…" she stuttered, "I doubt that um… any of you want to fail your O.W.L. and get bad marks." She sat down, completely flustered. Oh Hermione, what happened to you? What happened to all of those times practicing speech in front of classes and also performing magic in front of gigantic crowds of people? It was a group of barely sixteen people and you freak out. How professional.

Harry had regained his confidence and began to talk more about what he would be teaching them. Hermione kept her head tilted to the side for two reasons mainly. Firstly, to be polite and at least look like she was paying attention, which she was, and secondly, to avoid having to look at Cho, who's dark eyes were piercing and mysterious.

She reached out her hand to feel for her butterbeer mug, but instead she grabbed a hold of something soft and delicate. What on earth…? She turned her head and it dawned on her that she had grabbed Cho's tanned but soft hand. They stared, turned their heads to make eye contact, and then immediately pulled away.

Hermione was blushing furiously as she stammered out an apology, "I-I'm terribly sorry, I was trying to pick up my drink, but I-I guess I missed. The consequences of not looking where I was reaching, eheh…" she gave out a pathetic chuckle as she seized her butterbeer and buried her face in the mug to avoid her embarrassment. Of all people, why Cho? That was very sad to say the least.

As the meeting was about to end, she suddenly remembered something important and began to rummage through all of her pockets. Harry looked at her as she fished out a piece of parchment and quill so that everyone could write their names down.

Everybody agreed, even if a bit halfheartedly. "Don't worry, it won't fall into any of the teacher's hands. It will be safe, and not left out in the open for all to read. Trust me."

And with that, the people who had come into the Hog's Head pub with not even the faintest idea of what they were doing, left it with the secret in their mind that they were going to defy Professor Umbridge by doing the secret defense against the dark arts training right under her large nose.