Chapter 3

It was a few days since the door incident. The day it happened only made the ties of Ron and Harry's friendship even more strained, and Hermione was starting to worry about them as the weeks passed by, watching them in classes at a distance while they sat in chairs that were far away from each other and avoided each other as if they despised one another.

Even the teachers of Hogwarts had the same concern as Hermione did. As much as they were concerned about their O.W.L grades(which were dropping faster than a falling rock), they knew that something must have caused their odd behaviors, but they did not find the exact reason why. As for Draco Malfoy, many classmates who knew him were puzzled about his sudden change since several months ago and though they tried to help him recover it was as if he, along with Ron and Harry, were mentally changed for the worse.

That afternoon, Hermione walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor Doromitory with her wand in hand. She brushed her bushy hair away from her face to get a better vision as she neared the door, which she noticed that it had a new doorknob installed by Dumbledore after Harry cast an Oblivion spell on the previous one to keep Ron from entering.

That bloke, Hermione thought to herself shaking her head, I don't know what will happen the next time he will attempt to talk to Harry. I hope Ron doesn't end up getting hurt in the process. She knocked on the door with a series of light taps, speaking, "Hello? It's Hermione. Can I talk to you for a moment?."

"Is it Ron playing that same trick as before?" Harry asked in mock surprise on the other side.

Hermione's brow arched. "Why is that?"

"Ron imitated your voice so he can get in here."

Hermione almost dropped her wand in shock. "Ron used my voice to talk to you?!" She wanted to blurt out to the door but stopped herself just in time, putting her hand on her chest as she let out several rapid breaths. "Well, that's certainly a surprise," she said finally, gaining her composture. "Can I ask you something?"

"As long it's not from that Weasley friend of mine," Harry agreed. Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed.

"What does this person you're talking to like to do in his/her free time?" She asked.

Harry smiled. He knew that ever since he shut himself off from his friends, Hermione would come to his room and ask questions about people - or about herself - before coming in. "Reading books," he answered.

"What spell did this person use on the Devil's Snare in your first year?"

"Incendio."

"There are three facts about this person that were true. What are they?"

"1) The person is very intelligent and often raises his/her hand. 2) The person is one of Prof. McGonagall's favorite Gryffindor. 3) The person believed that Prof. Snape would come back to Hogwarts one day."

Hermione took a deep breath and asked, "What is this person's name?"

Harry's smile grew bigger. "Hermione Granger."

The door opened with a creak and Hermione stepped into the room, where she saw Harry lying on his bed. "I'm surprised you remember all the things I asked you about," she grinned with approval at her friend. "I thought you might forget by now." Harry shook his head.

"Nah. I probably heard you talking to Ron or that I heard them so many times every time you visited."

Hermione sighed again as she pulled up a chair and sat down next to Harry's bed. "I'm sorry about what happened between you and Ron, so I decided to come over if it would cheer you up," Hermione admitted. Harry nodded as if he understood. "But I'm worried about you Harry. Your sudden change during the past several months, along with Draco Malfoy and our friend Ron, is a bit of a concern for me. Well, not only me but our teachers and... Lee and the Weasley twins as well."

Harry looked at Hermione as if there was something wrong with her. "But I'm fine," he said, "there's nothing wrong with me."

Hermione reached into her robes and pulled out several papers with writing on them, which she then gave to a confused Harry. "I got these papers from several classrooms when our teachers were out doing errands so you can see how your progress was like during the past several months after Snape disappeared."

Harry's eyes skimmed through the papers Hermione gave him as if he wasn't interested in reading at all. It was when he got to the paper where his grades were printed did he slow down. Harry looked at his grades that were from last year, which consisted of E's and A's with only O from a certain class.

He then looked at his current grades and saw that they had changed drastically; with his classes having low marks like T's, D's, and P's. He turned to Hermione, who gave a apologetic look.

"Harry, I'm telling you the truth," she told him. "You did good last year..., but from the day you came back from being out of Hogwarts too long with Ron and Draco..., I think you had been neglecting your studies."

"But what about Ron? And Draco?" Harry asked.

Hermione sighed. "I'll show them their own papers privately when the time comes. But I really wanted to tell you something that is really important."

"What?"

"Harry..., if you don't improve now you're going to fail the fourth term at Hogwarts, and you're going to stay behind in the summer doing makeup work."

--

The early evening in Hogwarts was spent as Harry and Hermione looked to their teachers for advice on how to improve Harry's O.W.L grades. Each teacher had the same answer as the last one:

"Harry, your grades are dropping faster than subtracted house points. What I suggest that you try to study during the holidays so you can catch up in your classes or you have to repeat your term after this year's end."

Ron's academic place in Hogwarts was less severe, though almost all of his O.W.L grades were as low as Harry's. When Hermione showed his teachers' papers about his progress a day later, he admitted that he didn't know that his grades were dropping until now. The response from the teachers that Harry and Ron had were so concerning to Hermione that she had to postpone her discussion about Harry's behavior with Ron's brothers and Lee Jordan so she can help her friends study overtime to catch up with the others in their grades.

Harry and Ron at first didn't like it one bit because they didn't like the fact that they're going to be in the same room as the other and that they had to study as hard as ever, something that they hadn't been used to yet. The room issue was a bit of an annoyance to not only Hermione, but to the others who heard about their friends' poor performance as well. Fred and George were mad at how Ron responded to being with his friend - who was now his "enemy" - and had to go as far as magically tying a "rope" around them with their wands so they would be seperated in case a fight broke out.

"Hermione, you've got to be serious!" Harry cried out to Hermione a day later while glaring daggers at Ron. "I don't want to study about our classes while he's in here! He'll hinder my progress of raising my grades!"

"Your grades?!" Ron bellowed from the other side. "What about my grades?! I have to study overtime to bring them up or else I'll be stuck with you next year! Why, your grades were even lower than your poor performance in Hogwarts!"

"Guys, stop this bickering at once so we can all continue our work on your O.W.L grades," Hermione almost shouted at both of them with her hand on her face. "I can't continue tutoring the both of you with your heads exploding next time you see each other. The teachers are concerned for you and so am I!"

"But 'Mione, I don't want to be sitting in this chair next to him! I don't even want to breathe the same air in this room as him!" Ron complained as he struggled against the "rope" binding him to his chair.

"Ron, please...," Hermione pleaded with the taller boy.

"Heeeermioneeee!" The two boys begged. Hermione was so exhausted that she collasped in a nearby couch while steering her eyes to the celing above.

"Look you two, I'm really tired of hearing you yelling arguments at each other. Fred and George should have been in here dealing with you and I will have no problem helping you with work, but they are running errands for their teachers and Lee is out helping Prof. Dumbledore and the staff with the preparations of the next Quidditch match, which is in a few months. If you guys keep this up, there will be trouble ahead and you will be placed in summer school for the break."

Hermione expected a heated response from both of them but all she heard was the stillness in the large room and eventually, the footsteps that echoed through the walls as they came through a short corridor after the portrait of the Fat Lady. They must be Fred and George, Hermione thought to herself. But when the door creaked open, George and Lee's heads popped in from behind.

"Is something going on?" George asked. Hermione immeadiately turned her head to face the older boys.

"Oh, I didn't expect the two of you!" Hermione said surprisingly.

Lee rolled his eyes. "Of course not, 'Mione. The Quidditch decorations didn't take long so I had enough time to find George." Hermione's eyes shifted from Lee to George, who cleared his throat with a cough.

"Lee didn't find my twin, though," added George. "Last time I saw him, he told me he was heading towards the library to catch up on some assignment or somethin'." Hermione's brow arched slightly when he quickly put in, "Shouldn't take long for him to come here, though." It was when George noticed that his younger brother was staring daggers at Harry, who looked like he was going to tear him apart.

"What's happening here?" George asked suspiciously, his finger pointed at them.

Hermione sighed, "I think..." - she looked briefly at her friends then back to George and Lee - "...I think they had a bit of a problem of seeing each other during study time." Lee eyed a quick glance at Fred's twin and he could see George getting red in the face.

"Tell you what, Hermione," said Lee standing in full view before George could speak, "we'll do this seperately. I'll part of the catching-up with Ron while you do it with Harry in different rooms so we don't end up with another blow out and Hermione wouldn't have to suffer from doing this herself while we do errands for the teachers."

George's anger lessened as he looked at Lee. "Why that? You know they'll end up in a fight the next time they see each other."

"Ron and Harry kept insisting that they should study in seperate rooms," Hermione stood up at last, eyeing Ron and Harry with an angry look. "They're really off their rockers..., in an explosive way if you put it with all of that yelling you two should be hearing from your way here."

The look on George's freckled face told all in the Common Room that he was about to explode. Lee quietly and uncomfortably inched as far away from him as possible. Ron and Harry for once focused their attention elsewhere instead on each other.

"You mean my younger brother was arguing with Harry again?" He growled.

"Um...," Hermione cleared her throat. From behind, she can hear Ron giving a nervous gulp.

"George, don't," Lee almost whispered in a high pitch. He always gets like this when either Fred or George was about to lose it.

"I guess you can put it that way," shrugged Hermione. "They were always like that whenever I tried to get them to study on their work."

Lee gave her a Shut-it-Hermione look. George's head turned to where Ron and Harry are sitting with the rope putting them apart.

Uh-oh, was all Harry thought as they waited for the worst to happen.

"Um..., 'Mione," asked Ron, "what about Draco?"

Everyone faced Ron as everything went silent. George, instead of blowing up, just crossed his arms and scoffed. "You mean that Slytherin slimeball who always picks on the three of you for no reason? Why do you feel sorry for him now?" Feeling ashamed by his brother's sarcasm, Ron bowed his head with nothing to say.

"I think he wants to know if we can help Draco recover from his breakdown," Hermione said in defense. "If Draco doesn't sooner or later, who knows what might happen to him later on?"

"But we're Gryffindors, Hermione," protested Lee. "Slytherins don't like Gryffindors for countless reasons that even you don't know about."

"And besides, they hate anyone who has a bloodline other than just Pureblood," George added.

Hermione didn't believe what they said. "Maybe it's got to be related to Snape's disappearance somehow," she said thoughtfully. "If we can hope for one day that Snape does come back to Hogwarts, Draco will cheer up!"

George looked at Hermione as if she lost her mind. "Oh great!" He said in frustration. "First you talk about Draco. And you talk about Professor Snape?!"

"George!" Lee whispered harshly.

Suddenly, Harry and Ron heard the door open with a creak as a boy with a brown toad in his arms appeared through the doorway and stepped into the Common Room. "Guys?" he spoke up timidly amidst all the loud voices.

"Neville!" Harry shouted from his chair, causing the conversation to stop abruptly. "What are you doing here?"

"Um..., I just came to tell you that it's nearly bedtime...," Neville paused, glancing at his friends nervously, "so the Gryffindors are going to be coming here in a few minutes."

"What about you?" asked Ron.

"...I just came early because McGonagall was asking the rest of us if we saw Professor Snape in the Transfigurations classroom," he replied, seeing Ron and Harry's faces pale. "Well, during class yesterday, she thought she saw him standing in the back while we were practicing transforming a mushroom to a pincushion..."

Much to Ron and Harry's surprise, everyone else didn't say a word about it. "I think I'll be going to bed now," he put it quickly and briskly walked to the dormintory upstairs. Hermione looked at Ron and Harry with a questionable look.

"Boys?" she asked suspiciously. "Do you two have something to do with this?" The two Gryffindors looked at each other with a We're-in-big-trouble glance.

"No," they both answered.

"I'm serious, you two! Do you have something to do with what happened yesterday and today?" Hermione's answer was still "No". It was then Lee stared to yawn.

"You know, I'm really starting to get tired. Isn't it time for us to go to bed, too?" He asked in an almost lazy way as he stretched his arms.

The others turned to look out of a big window nearby and noticed that the moon was already out in a dark sky. They all made silent glances at each other. What they didn't realize that they had been talking so long that neither of them didn't even notice how fast time went by.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired, too," Hermione agreed. Turning to the boys, she said, "We'll all help the two of you with your studies tomorrow." Then she turned to George. "And George?"

"What is it?"

"Don't you think you need to..., do something?"

With a reluctant groan, George raised his wand and muttered a counter spell that loosened the "ropes" placed on Ron and Harry. They immeadiately stood up to stretch their sore joints from being confined to their chairs too long, earning them a couple of sighs.

As they left to prepare for sleep upstairs, Lee whispered in Ron's ear, "Remind me that we have to get Fred to put a prank on Filch sometime soon." Ron silenty nodded, then made a quick look at Hermione to see if she heard them. She did not, making Ron feel relieved.

--

Harry walked into a nearby bathroom in a tired walk, humming a Muggle song he heard a couple of years ago to keep himself awake enough to brush his teeth. He also felt sore from being "tied" to a chair just because he almost fought with his best friend, who was going to sleep on the sofa tonight to avoid sleeping with him like he used to when they first became friends. It was then Harry started to worry about Ron.

I wonder why Ron doesn't consider me a friend of his anymore? He thought to himself, thinking of the happy times they spent together before Snape's death. Every thought of their former friendship made tears come out of his eyes, and eventually Harry found himself weeping for being torn apart. Ron was always his best friend since their first year in Hogwarts, and it all started when Draco Malfoy bullied him at King's Cross for having a poor background and for being a "blood traitor".

Harry started to smile at this memory despite the tears. The first time Harry really met Draco, the young blonde thought he was another pureblood who shared his family's beliefs about Muggles, and made an offer to become friends with him instead of poor Ron struggling to pick up the things he dropped. Feeling sorry for Ron, Harry turned Draco down and stood up for the other side, and Ron had been friends with Harry ever since.

Now, Harry was beginning to realize that friendship was falling apart. He then sighed wearily as he leaned on the sink. All of those memories..., are they really worth for the recent turmoil they're going through now?

Harry unscrewed the cap off of a toothpaste container and started to squeeze its contents on his toothbrush. As he closed it and took his glasses, he suddenly thought he heard someone speaking behind him. Harry immeadiately turned around and saw that no one was there.

Am I just imagining things? Harry wondered. He just shrugged to himself and reached for his toothbrush. He was starting to raise it to his already open mouth when he heard someone speaking in a stern tone.

"Still up, Potter?"

This time Harry wasn't "imagining" things. Seeing only himself in the mirror in front, he slowly turned around and found himself face-to-face with a transparent Snape looming over him like a shadow. By the time he had vanished, Harry's body was on the floor with a red toothbrush next to his hand.