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Chapter 3: Beliefs

Hannah rose early following the incident at the quidditch pitch with Harry. She decided to get ready for classes a bit earlier than usual so she wouldn't miss the opportunity to see Harry at breakfast. As the warm water cascaded down her body, she was preparing her explanation. Harry would just have to listen to reason. She hoped that her actions hadn't completely thrown him into depression. The first task was rapidly approaching and he would need to be in top form. She couldn't live with herself if she continued to hurt him, which ironically she did both physically and mentally last night.

When she stepped out of the shower, Susan was just getting out of the adjacent one. Hannah realized that she must have been in the shower awhile if Susan had already caught up to her.

She was taken out of her thoughts with Susan interrupting her, "What's got you up so early? You do realize it's Saturday right?"

Hannah smacked her forehead, "Shoot, I just realized that! That means it's Hogsmeade today. Sorry, I wasn't really thinking clearly." She wasn't really too upset at missing valuable sleeping hours.

"Couldn't sleep much with what you had on your mind yesterday huh?" commented Susan. "Don't worry too much about it Hannah. Besides, Hogsmeade will give you the perfect time to speak with him outside the usual casual glances in the hallways."

"I was hoping to possibly see him before hand so maybe we could meet up at the Three Broomsticks," confided Hannah.

"Well we don't want to miss him, so let's hurry up."

They dressed quickly and made their way down towards the Great Hall. Before leaving, Hannah made sure to to throw off her badge in disgust. Susan also took her's off, in support of her best friend.

Hannah could feel her palms getting sweaty at the suspected confrontation. She began to steel herself and prepare her apology, but as the walked through the doors, she let out an audible groan. Harry wasn't even eating yet. Now that she looked at the table, she realized that Gryffindor didn't have any students there yet. Hannah could hear Susan grumble, "Courageous and brave but none of them can face the horror of morning."

As they both sat down, Susan popped the question, "So are you ever going to tell me what happened after I left last night."

Hannah was nervously playing with her fingers as she spoke, "It was so scary. He seemed so angry when he was up there. I've never seen him like that, ever. He probably broke his foot on one of the hoops because of his frustration. When I tried to follow him into the castle, he just kept his distance without even acknowledging me."

Susan's response was to just pat her arm consolingly and begin to pile food onto their plates. In the meantime, Ernie sat across from the two girls and engaged them in conversation. He took note of their lack of badges, but chose not to comment at the moment. Hannah was drawn away from her staring at the entrance by Ernie questioning, "Do you guys want to grab a few butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks later? Maybe we can trade some Chocolate Frog cards and relax. We haven't done that in a while."

Hannah shot him down pretty quickly. "Sorry Ernie, but I was hopping to meet up with someone today. I'm sure Susan would like too." At Susan's confirmation, Hannah resumed eating as she stared towards the doors.

After twenty minutes of eating quite slowly, Hannah noticed Harry walk in the Great Hall accompanied by Hermione. Harry had his head held high when the student body started whispering at his appearance. He looked to be carrying a large book which seemed odd to Hannah. Harry never read or did homework at breakfast. They seemed to be arguing slightly and she could barely make out what they were saying. "... but he's your best friend!"

"WAS my best friend, Hermione. He's been nothing but a prat the past week," rebutted Harry as they both sat down in close proximity to the Hufflepuff's.

"But you miss him!" insisted Hermione. "And he misses you! You can't let one fight break off your friendship. You need friends Harry!"

Harry contemplated for a moment before speaking once more, "No I don't. Not anymore. A true friend would have supported me when the entire school hates my guts." Hannah whimpered when he revealed that. If only she had reached out to him sooner. "It's about time I moved on and started doing things my own way. Ronald," he sneered the name, "has been holding me back for too long." Harry then proceeded to begin reading the large book that was on the table.

Just when Hannah began to rise and talk to Harry with a revised apology, Hermione spoke up once again, "Won't you at least come grab a butterbeer with me? You've been reading that defense book nonstop since last night. You need to take a breather. Trust me, I know from experience." Hannah's heart plunged because she realized she might have been the one to set him off and force this change.

"No, I don't think I can Hermione. The first task is less than a week away and I still have no idea what to prepare for. Plus, the last thing I want is to be hounded by more people today than necessary." At his words, Hannah plopped back down into her seat in depression.

Hannah glanced over at Susan's apologetic face before turning once again to Ernie. "On second thought Ernie, I'd like to do that today."

Ernie's face lit up at his change in luck. He was blissfully unaware of why Hannah had changed all of a sudden. The three Hufflepuffs finished the rest of their meal in relative silence, not noticing the silent exchange and agreement between Harry and Hermione.

When Susan and Hannah finally left breakfast, they told Ernie to meet up with them at the Three Broomsticks. After running to the dormitory for her extra Chocolate Frog cards, they spotted Hermione a couple feet in front of them talking to Neville Longbottom. Suprisingly, Neville was talking quite animatedly with her. Normally, Neville was abnormally shy, but had an affinity for Herbology. From what they could hear, they were chatting about that topic. That made sense, Neville might actually be smarter than Hermione in that one subject.

Hannah noticed that after a minute or so, Hermione's eyes flashed back a few feet as if she were looking for someone. Taking it as a signal that she was looking back at them, Hannah rushed up to Hermione.

"Hi Hermione! Hi Neville."

"Hello Hannah!" answered Hermione. They could barely hear Neville's greeting. "Lovely day isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," answered Hannah while looking down. She decided to act oblivious to why Harry wasn't with her. Hermione didn't seem to be hostile towards Hannah. Yet. "Where's Harry? I figured he would be coming down with you."

Hermione looked slightly exasperated, "Well, he didn't feel like being seen right now in public. He's been acting strangely since last night though. After he came through the portrait last night, he went straight up to his room and began reading up on his defense books. It was kind of strange that he came back down to study with me. I've been trying to get him to study for over three years and then he seems so driven all of as sudden."

"It was kind of odd," piped up Neville. "He actually invited me to join both of them. No one really ever notices me." At this comment, both Hermione and Hannah looked sympathetic. "He also told me that he's going to start training in the mornings. He said I could join him if I wanted to." Just then Neville seemed to trip on a rock. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like "sorry".

Hannah just assumed the trip was just Neville being his normal clumsy self. She spoke up, "I think I may be the reason he changed so much last night." At seeing Hermione's unspoken relief, she continued, "Before you thank me, can you please arrange for him to speak to me? I really need to talk to him and set a few things straight." Before either of the Gryffindors could answer, Hannah fell back into Susan's presence to continue their trip towards Hogsmeade.

Susan put a friendly arm around her shoulders and tried to comfort her, "Just give it time Hannah. He'll see that you didn't mean to hurt him."

When they finally reached the village, they saw Hermione and Neville duck into Honeydukes. Since Hannah and Susan had already seen much of what Hogsmeade offered, they decided to grab a table inside the Three Broomsticks a bit earlier than usual.

The pub was already pretty busy because of the Hogsmeade weekend for students. It appeared that it was even more crowded than usual because of the spectators getting ready for the First Task. All sorts of people were mingling about with drinks. Hannah could spot Rita Skeeter at the bar with her personal scumbag photographer, Bozo. Upon seeing her ugly crocodile-skin handbag, Hannah was slightly comforted by the fact that there was actually someone in Hogsmeade that Harry hated more than her at this point. That was, of course, assuming that Skeeter made up the entire article about him. She was convinced that Harry would never agree to that type of interview.

Susan nodded towards a corner table that they could sit at. They sat together for a few minutes contemplating the First Task when Ernie finally arrived. "Hello Ladies. Care for a round of butterbeers?"

As the girls watched him approach the bar, Rita was dragging Bozo out the door. "Probably off to ruin someone else's life," commented Susan. Hannah was suddenly glad that Harry wasn't in Hogsmeade. He must have known that Skeeter might have hassled him here.

When Ernie returned with three butterbeers, Hannah began to lay out her duplicate cards that she was willing to trade. So far, the only ones she didn't own were Wilfred Elphick, Xavier Rastrick, and Herpo the Foul. Herpo happened to be the first creator of a Basilisk. Thinking of this immediately brought her thoughts back to Harry. Back to that crazy second year where Harry was once again an outcast before he supposedly defeated a Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. Hannah had to let out an exasperated sigh before she noticed Ernie was actually proposing a trade.

"So would you take a Gondoline Oliphant and a Dzou Yen for your Cornelious Agrippa?" questioned Ernie. He was holding out the two proposed cards in his hand.

Hannah thought about it for a moment, "Sure. The Dzou Yen card is pretty rare and I already have three Agrippas." Ernie smiled broadly at his acquisition.

From over Ernie's shoulder, Hannah could see Hermione and Neville walk in the door. Hermione pointed out a table two seats from the current Hufflepuff location. As Neville sat down, Hermione made her way to the bar to grab some butterbeers. The thing that was curious to Hannah though, was that she appeared to be carrying three bottles in her hands. When Hermione reached Neville's table, she handed one to him and opened the other for herself. She could have sworn that she had three bottles instead of two. The situation seemed odd to Hannah, but she merely passed it off as her own imagining.

Hannah completely blocked out Ernie talking and she began to watch Hermione. The bushy-haired girl seemed to be looking at a notebook in front of her while Neville was trying to have a conversation. Hermione didn't even seem to be talking, but Neville was speaking although he was having a two-way conversation. Once again, odd.

Before she could question the weirdness of the situation, her view was blocked out by Professor Moody and Hagrid's enormous body. The two professors seemed to be stopping by to have a few friendly words. Everyone around Hogwarts knew that Harry, Hermione, and Ron had a friendly relationship with Hagrid. Hannah couldn't really understand why Professor Moody was hanging around with him though.

As the two professors left the bar, she was once again pulled out of her thoughts by Ernie. "How come you guys aren't wearing your Support Cedric badges?" He had finally asked the question Hannah had been dreading since breakfast.

"For the exact opposite reason of why you have yours on," answered Susan. She was referring to the badge on Ernie's chest that was currently flashing POTTER STINKS.

Hannah took over from there, "We believe Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet. He has been made a pariah within the school because of our house's heartless accusations. Harry is too sweet to be treated like that and I for one refuse to be apart of his harassment." Susan smiled support of her best friend.

Ernie raised his eyebrow at the sweet part, but quickly regained his composure, "That may be so, but don't you care about supporting Cedric? Hufflepuff's always stick together. He needs our support more than anyone else."

Hannah quickly thought up the best way to end the conflict before it escalated. Hannah may be hesitant to sort things out with Harry, but she knew that now was as good a time as any to start progressing towards earning respect for herself. She settled on going on the offensive. "You may be okay with verbally attacking one of our classmates but I am not! The House of Hufflepuff may be the house of loyalty and dedication, but that does not mean I have to be influenced by blindly following my peers in what they perceive as 'House Loyalty'," Ernie seemed to want to interrupt but, Hannah cut him off, "I WILL, however, exercise my right to be dedicated to my own beliefs. If those beliefs happen to to be supporting Harry in the hope that I can help him overcome this situation, than so be it! Goodbye Ernie!"

Hannah stormed out of the Three Broomsticks with Susan hot on her tail. Her face was still slightly flushed with anger, but she seemed to cool down once she saw the surprised look on Susan's face. Her best friend was staring at her with wide eyes that had traces of some unknown emotion. Admiration? The two girls slowed to a brisk walk.

"Hannah, what made you say that?" questioned Susan. Hannah merely bit her lip in response. "That was amazing! I'm so proud of you! You may be worthy of dating a Lion after all." Her poke at Hannah's no longer secret crush seemed to diffuse some of the tension.

"Sue, that was just my emotion overflowing. I'm sick of being a part of a crowd. I finally realized that in order for Harry to get to know the true me, I need to be able to stand up for what's right," spoke Hannah with conviction. "Harry deserves that much," she whispered to herself.

Susan smiled happily as Hannah seemed to finally let out her emotions. They linked arms in silent support before walking down the road towards the center of Hogsmeade. After all, there was still an entire afternoon out of the castle to enjoy.

Another one done and another opportunity for my awesome readers to shown their opinions so far. Recognition and a chance to offer up improvements. Sounds like a sweet deal to me.

-BB