Harry Potter and the Fifth House

Chapter 3: Hermione is a Bit like a Mother

Harry was vaguely, and pleasantly, surprised when Blaise and Draco showed up. Ron, however, was not and quickly declared that Hermione was shit at wizards chess so Blaise should teach her Gobstones while he played with Harry.

Blaise did. He laughed and slung an arm over her shoulder when he won.

(-)

Conversation flowed easily between the group the next morning, mixing with the chatter of the other tables. One minute Draco would be talking to Neville and the next he'd find himself laughing as he flung a piece of bread at Ron for making fun of Hermione's hair.

It felt nice. He honestly couldn't remember a time when anything with his parents or his friends, were they still his friends now?, had felt this innocent and easy.

"Wait, wait," Ron was saying when Draco snapped from his thoughts, "classes start on Monday right?"

"Yeah," Blaise answered around a mouth full of chocolate croissant. "We've got Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic, and Potions." The conversation had begun to drift into what the four familiar with the wizarding world knew of each subject and the teachers who taught them when a rush of hoots and wind cut in.

When it was over Neville and Blaise both sat with envelopes in their hands. As Neville was tearing into his, Draco whispered, "Is it…?"

"Yeah," Blaise gave a shaky nod. He pushed up. "I'm going to open this somewhere else."

Draco watched him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah okay. Tell me what it says, okay?"

Blaise just hummed as he left, neither agreeing or disagreeing with the request. After a moment, Draco turned away from his back and joined the conversation Neville and Harry were having about wizard and muggle music.

(-)

Blaise sat on the steps leading to the Tigerlily common room with the knowledge that he'd be left alone for a while. His right hand shook as he used the nails on his left to cut the envelope open. He struggled with it for a moment before finally managing to get the letter open.

I'll talk to Dumbledore about this.

Mommy will take care of everything, baby.

Love always, your darling mother.

PS: this winter I'd like you to meet your new stepfather.

His hands tightened on the letter before a dry chuckle left his lips. What was wrong with his mother? She'd managed to make something that should have been about him about her and her new husband.

He felt something prickle at his eyes as it flooded through his mind that god; his mom was going to be a bitch about this wasn't she? There would be a tantrum and half a broken headmasters office by the time she finally got it through her head that no, he couldn't switch houses no matter how hard she tried to make it happen.

He heard her footsteps before Hermione actually appeared in his blurring vision. She took one look at him before saying, "The others aren't coming up anytime soon," and plopping down next to him. Even though she didn't touch him or even say anything else, Blaise felt comforted as the tears began to really flow.

(-)

"Let's go this way," Ron demanded when he noticed where the staircases led. Ron and Harry had decided to go wondering around the castle again since school would be starting soon and Neville had joined them.

Harry shook his head, "We went that way last night, remember? Let's go this way." Before Ron could protest, the two dark haired boys were already running up the stairs. He sighed and allowed himself to think that maybe, just maybe, everything his brothers had told him that summer about what portraits to look at so as not to get lost going to the Gryffindor common room was a joke.

When they rounded another staircase to see twin red heads coming towards them Ron froze and thought, god damn it I shouldn't have asked Charlie.

(-)

"I wanted to help them, Sev," Charity Burbage declared, her hands clutching a tea cup, "not because he was Harry Potter but because they both looked so confused and god their only eleven. I tried my best to explain it to Harry but it's something I find unfathomable."

Severus Snape hummed as he watched his fellow Professor fidget in her chair, "You know their still looking for a Head of House for them?"

Charity nodded and twirled a finger around her tea cup, "I thought you might step up. Draco is your godson, right?"

"I'm already Head of Slytherin," Snape replied. "If you really want to help them, Charity, you might consider offering?"

"O-oh," her face flushed a bright red, "but I wasn't…I mean I was a Hufflepuff!"

"There's no one still alive that was in Tigerlily," Snape responded with a pointed look. "It's just an idea." He tried to force his lips into something resembling a smile. "You're a very nice person. I'm sure you could help them, all of them, with the things they're going through."

Charity gave a tiny laugh, "You know sometimes the others ask me why I bother to hang out with you, then you go and say something like that."

Before Snape could ask what was so bad with what he had said, there was a sharp knock on his door. "Come in," he called expecting it to be Dumbledore or one of the other teachers and found himself vaguely shocked when he found it was Draco.

Draco shifted, standing awkwardly in the doorway, before asking, "Can I uh…can we talk?" His eyes drifted to Charity.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, standing up as she realized why. "Oh that's fine." She reached over giving Snape a hug that made him feel incredibly awkward, as she always did because she was so touchy. "I'll see you later, Severus." She clapped Draco on the back before continuing out the door.

Once she was gone, Draco tentatively made his way over to the chair she had vacated and settled into it. Snape watched him for a minute. Then he asked, "So what is it, Draco?"

"It's not about me actually," he declared, his hands clenched into fists on his lap. "I wanted to talk to you about Blaise." Snape watched as a look flashed across his godsons face. "He doesn't have a dad and his moms never around and well he just needs an adult to tell him that it's okay not to be Slytherin I think."

"And you?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "What do you need, Draco? I doubt you came here just to ask me to help Blaise."

Draco bit his lip, "I don't…I mean I think my mom will always love me."

"She will," Snape assured him. "But that's not what you're worried about is it?"

(-)

"Well hello there boys," George declared with a large grin on his face as he slid past Harry and Neville. His arm slipped around Ron's shoulders.

Fred smiled at them. "Do you mind if we steal him for a little bit? We've got some family things to talk about."

Harry and Neville exchanged a look before Harry shrugged. "Okay," he agreed. He grabbed Neville's wrist, "We're going to go somewhere else then…" Looking as though they felt incredibly awkward, the duo rushed away. Once they had disappeared, George's arm fell down and Fred moved closer to them.

"You haven't sent mom a letter like you promised her you would," Fred deadpanned.

"She's really worried about you."

Ron rubbed at his arms, hugging himself self-consciously, before saying, "I'll send her a letter okay? Tell her I'm not dead or whatever."

He went to turn away, but found George's hand gripping his arm. He turned to find his older brothers both scowling at him. George's grip loosened but he didn't let go as he said, "We've been here for a week and this is the first time we've run into each other."

"Your avoiding us," Fred explained as though it wasn't obvious.. "Why are you avoiding us, Ron?"

"It's nothing," Ron declared, wishing he was strong enough to pull out of George's grip.

"You're lying," George answered. He let his hand fall. "Ron if this is about you not being in Gryffindor-"

"We did mean it when we said we didn't care which house you were in," Fred finished.

Their next words were in unison, "You're still our stupid and incredibly awkward little brother."

Ron looked at the floor, "I just…I'm going to go find Neville and Harry before they get too far away." He ran up the steps Neville and Harry had taken without waiting for his brothers to say anything else.

He was glad they didn't try to stop him.

E/n: Charity/Snape is probably not going to go anywhere other then friendship. I'm not sure yet though. Maybe. I'm debating when and even if I'm going to follow canon of the first book and tweak it into something fitting this story? What do you guys think on either of those points?

I feel like Blaise is getting all the attention in the first few chapters. Which characters do you guys want to see a bit of emphasize on in the coming ones? There is still a lot to do with Blaise though, so don't worry about me dropping it here. It may just take a backburner for a while.

Next time: School has finally started and Hermione's the only one who is really feeling it.