Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Okay guys and girls I am back after a manic couple of weeks work wise, socially and home life. I am a little disappointed as the poll only received one vote, Susan Bones was chosen. I will admit I had already written Susan into the story but I wanted my readers opinions.

Thank you for all the reviews I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

"Potter a word if you will." Snape said as the class of Ravenclaws and Slytherins were dismissed. He smiled at his friends and told them he would meet them at Transfiguration. Walking towards the front of the class he could have sworn that he saw the older man smile.

"Yes Professor?" He stood in front of Snape's desk curious about his summons.

"I have two things I wish to talk to you about Harry the first is your choice in life after school."

"Well I have always been interested in the Auror route but I think I have done my fair share of wizard hunting." To this Snape seemed to be amused.

"You still surprise me Harry I thought you loved the hero gene in you. Well I am here to offer you a different route. Would you consider becoming a Potions Master? Don't laugh after seeing your skills so far this term I cannot let you leave Hogwarts without offering you an apprentice with myself." This floored the young man who was stood in front of him. "Give it some thought and let me know. I have offered the same position to Mr Malfoy. You know you have your Mothers talent where it comes to Potions."

"Thank you Sir I shall think about it." He genuinely was overwhelmed by the offer from the man sat the other side of the table.

"The second thing Harry is your friend Ron has been given an ultimatum by the Headmistress to either adapt to Hogwarts or to leave. This warning has been given to a number of seventh years who will not or lack the ability to adapt to inter house friendships or refuse to study Muggle studies."

"I will pass this message on to Ginny about her brother. I am afraid Ron has severed all ties for Hermione and I, I do not think we can help him as he doesn't want to change. Thank you for the opportunity and information Professor."

"You are more than welcome Mr Potter now I believe you have Transfiguration to attend." The raven haired man practically skipped all the way to his lesson with Professor White. 'Severus has acknowledged my skills in potions. Hermione is going to be so jealous.' He entered the room as the class was about to start and took his seat next to Hermione and Neville.

"What are you so happy about?" Hermione asked looking amused at the Head Boy. He was about to respond when the Professor started her introduction into Animagus transformations and she surprised the class by transforming into a barn owl. Realising this lesson would be for note taking Harry quickly pulled his ink bottle out and marked the date in his text book, he looked up to see Hermione, Neville and even Seamus copying his lead.

"Now as I have mentioned 100 times becoming an Animagus is a dangerous and difficult achievement. If I hear that any of you have tried to practice outside of these walls I will put you into detention until Christmas, if any of you are interested in learning this branch of magic I ask you to come and see me or the Headmistress first for proper instruction. Next lesson we will be looking into how our Animagus forms are chosen." The bell rung indicating that the lesson had ended and the room was filled with the noise of scraping chairs and books closing. "HOMEWORK is to practice meditation for half an hour a night before bed. I will be testing you next week so do not avoid this practice." The room then emptied of students who all headed towards the Great Hall.

"So Harry what did Professor Snape want to see you about?" Draco asked as he and Theo caught up with the pair as they took seats at the Ravenclaw table.

"Okay I will tell you but only if you don't get mad" He said this looking at Hermione "or go yelling about it down the corridors. Professor Snape has offered me a similar position as Draco, he has offered me a place as his apprentice." Harry was engulfed in a hug by Hermione while Draco and Theo congratulated him "I am still not sure what route to take as I do enjoy Potions but not as much as Defence. However I am slowly moving away from the Auror option."

"I think it is good to keep your options open Harry.." Hermione piped up.

"Especially as you have already done your fair share of dark wizard hunting." Draco finished for her while Theo nodded in agreement and added

"Harry you have another six months before you need to make your decision so take some time to think on it." He smiled at the three of them and quickly helped himself to some soup that had appeared in front of him. Ginny entered the hall and headed towards the Gryffindor table with some other six year students that reminded him of the Quidditch match on Sunday.

"So Draco when were you going to tell me we had a practice match on Sunday?" He noticed the blonde looked confused and then mortified.

"I had completely forgotten about that." He jumped up and quickly walked to all the players of the team to inform them of the upcoming practice against Gryffindor. "How did you know anyway Harry? Did Ginny tell you?" Harry nodded in response.

"She told me Saturday night after the incident with Ron. I have some other news to do with Ginny we have decided on a mutual break up." He put a hand up to prevent the questions Draco and Hermione were about to bombard him with. "We have decided that things are not working for us any longer but still want to be friends, which is a point I have a message to give her from Severus." He drained the last of his soup and left the table to speak with the red head.

"Well I did not see that coming." Theo exclaimed over his jacket potato, looking at the other two he realised he was the only one who hadn't. "You could of warned me guys."

"Ginny has become very fond of Blaise recently Theo, even you should have seen that. Harry on the other hand hasn't had that tone to his voice that he used to when he spoke about her." Draco stated in a matter of fact way. Hermione looked at him like he had grown another head but before she could splutter a response Luna had joined the group.

"Nargles have fluffed your brain up Hermione, here drink this." She passed her a cup full of tea. "Ginny told me about them this morning, if I am truthful I am surprised it hasn't spread round the School like wildfire. After all the most famous wizard is now an eligible bachelor." She smiled at the three and helped herself to pudding while Harry headed back over to their table, took a seat and helped himself to some of the apple strudel oblivious to the looks three of his four friends were giving him.

"Well what was Snape's message and how is Ginny?" Hermione asked quickly shooting the other two men a look that clearly stated talk to him.

"Oh Snape wanted Ginny to know Ron has had an ultimatum to either change or leave. As for Ginny she wasn't shocked by this news and she seems perfectly fine to be honest 'Mione, however I am sure she would rather speak to you or Luna about stuff. She was more interested into talking to her Quidditch team anyway." He shot a wink at Draco and received a smirk in return "Theo do you fancy doing Flitwicks homework after lunch?"

"Yeah I really need to knuckle down on his project on status charms. I assume when you say Theo you actually mean Theo and anyone else who would like to join us?" He was grinning at the offended faces of the group until they realised they were also invited to study. "You are all so Ravenclaws." He ducked due to the paper ball just thrown at him by Stacey.

"There is nothing wrong with being a Raven Theodore, now as much as I love them I would hate to be a puff." She grinned at him and went back to her conversation with Michael Corner.

"I think I am in love..." Harry chocked on his dessert, Hermione almost spat her drink out as the group looked at Draco in shock, the latter had just turned a deep shade of pink.

"Well Draco Malfoy I think I might have just heard Satan screaming as hell froze over." Theo had started sniggering to himself at the look on his friends face.

"Drake I think it is great, Theo do not make fun of him." Luna was shooting the man sat opposite her looks that could kill.

"Oh no Theo you shouldn't make fun of our love sick puppy dog..." Harry ducked as he avoided a swat from Luna while Hermione merely giggled to herself. "What are you giggling at 'Mione?" He asked as he returned from under the table.

"I think it's sweet we have found a Malfoy without a frozen heart." By this point Draco was glaring at the three sat around him, quickly sensing that the blonde might start hexing them the trio raised their hands in mock surrender.

"You know guys that would really work better if you weren't laughing." Blaise had walked up to their table to see what all the commotion was about.

"Ah Blaise, why don't you join us after lunch for work on status charms? If you are lucky Draco here might even let you in on his latest fascination." Hermione chuckled and ducked as some treacle tart was aimed at her head.

"You mean he is over his fascination of hating Harry and has moved onto some other poor soul. Pray tell Draco." Blaise took a seat oblivious to the grins coming from all bar Luna.

"Kill me know." Draco moaned while making a face that simply stated he wished the ground would open beneath him.

"Shall we go work on these status charms?" Luna asked while standing to leave, her distraction worked as the Raven's all jumped to their feet in anticipation of studying the challenging charms. It was Draco's turn to laugh and he mouthed a 'thank you' to Luna. The group of six made it as far as the fifth floor before Theo told Blaise the news.

"You are kidding me Draco has admitted to love a Raven but not only a Raven also a redhead?" The group looked at him confused and Draco started to cringe at the idea of what Blaise might say next. "Well Drake I would like to congratulate you for putting your prejudice behind you, so when will you be asking Miss Thorpe out?" He grinned and led the way up to the seventh floor. Harry glanced at Hermione and shot her a look that clearly stated 'I have a plan' before he ran up the steps following Blaise, shaking her head she followed Luna leaving Theo and Draco looking amused.

The group entered the room of requirements and were faced with a small common room with a table full of hot food as well as a bookshelf full of relevant reading material. In the middle of the wall roared a log fire which bathed them all in a comfortable heat. Walking over to the table Hermione studied the food and lifted a plate off of the table, as soon as it reached eye height she noticed the plate had started to cool. She quickly placed it back on the table and smiled at the heat it picked up. "Would you believe it the room has put a charm on the table and area around it to keep a certain temperature. Once the item leaves it starts to cool down so we can have samples to test status charms with." She smiled at Harry who nodded in agreement and shot Blaise an impressed look.

"Well I thought we would need a medium for testing with." He shrugged his shoulders and placed his bag on a coat hanger. "I suppose we best knuckle down, the first one to master the spells gets to choose a non work related activity for us to do." He said this while walking towards the bookshelf smirking to himself 'This shall make things interesting.' The ravens had just looked at each other and then grabbed all their things to be the one to win.

An hour later and Hermione, Harry and Draco gave a triumphant shout as their status charms worked. The trio then glared at each other and laughed while Luna, Theo and Blaise looked at them like they were going mad. "You know you guys act insane sometimes." Theo said while completing his own status charm followed by Blaise and then Luna.

"Well we were challenged." Harry replied with matter of fact tone while checking the time with another charm. "Umm guys we need to head down to our next lesson it starts in five minutes." With that the group jumped up, grabbed their bags and sprinted out of the room and down the grand stair case, they shouted goodbye to Luna on the sixth floor followed by Blaise on the fifth. Hermione, Draco, Theo and Harry skidded to a stop with one minute to spare outside of the class room for DADA on the third floor. Panting the group looked at each other and started to laugh at the look on the faces of their class mates, suddenly the door opened and the group of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs entered into their class. "Right class today I have set up an obstacle course for you to test your knowledge and skills at. It will also show me how well you are advancing at the subject as well as showing areas of improvement. So if you will all follow me out onto the grounds we shall begin." The four looked at each other, grinned at the practical task and quickly left to follow the rest of the class onto the grounds.

xXx

Later that evening Harry sunk into a chair in front of the fire in the common room. They had just had one of the most physical days he could remember inside of Hogwarts, Hermione was sat opposite him reading up on Thestrals. The pair had done reasonably well in the course set by Remus Harry had almost gotten himself maimed by a Sphinx and Hermione had failed terribly when it came to facing a bogart, something that she had always struggled with. Apart from that they had sailed through the rest of the course, unlike some of the Hufflepuffs who had struggled with some of the basic defence sections and Draco who had failed completely at facing a Hippogriff which caused him to almost repeat the same incident in the third year. "So Harry what is your plan to get Draco to ask Stacey out?" Hermione was looking at him over the top over her book.

"Well I was thinking we could plan a Christmas dance, that way we could get Draco to ask Stacey out and Theo to ask Susan out. I might even find out who your crush is as well." He chuckled at the pillow that was sent his way.

"Hang on what do you mean Susan?" Hermione was looking at him full of thought and he stayed silent until she reached the same conclusion as him. "You don't think... well I think it is an excellent idea shall we ask the Headmistress tomorrow?" She was ginning brightly at him and he nodded in response as their regular drink of hot chocolate appeared on the table. Suddenly it was like someone hit the overdrive button on Hermione as she pulled out some parchment and a quill and started to jot down some ideas for the dance, chuckling to himself he watched her while drinking his drink. He was awoken from his day dreaming when the quill stopped scratching the parchment looking up he noticed Hermione watching him. "Harry are you sure you are ok? I mean with the whole splitting up with Ginny situation." She was analysing his every move and it made him chuckle to think she was so concerned about the whole situation.

"Yeah I am sure 'Mione, like I said we both come to a mutual agreement that it was no longer working. I no longer felt the way I used to for Ginny and I realised that when I saw her and Ron fighting, I love her like a sister 'Mione." He knew from her expression she was not going to leave it there but she smiled at him.

"As long as you are sure Harry I am always here is you need to talk." She looked back at her parchment "So shall we go all out on this like the Yule Ball or shall we keep it a bit more low key?" This had been the part of the plan Harry was opposed to he hadn't found the Yule Ball a positive experience and was less keen to repeat the same scenario.

"I think we should ask the Headmistress's opinion as well as Draco and Theo's." Hermione arched an eyebrow at him "However I would like to make the ball fairly high tempo with dress robes but with a more classic setting compared to the band we had at the ball. But that is my opinion we will have to see what McGonagall says." It was his turn to smile at her due to the shocked expression she was now wearing deciding he was ready to call it a night he stood up, walked over to her and without a second thought kissed the top of her head. "Good night Hermione." It wasn't until he was halfway up the stairs that he realised she never replied and that it had become somewhat routine to kiss her good night. 'This is an unusual situation.' He thought to himself while getting ready for bed. Meanwhile downstairs Hermione was still sat in a state of surprise 'Who would have thought it Harry is into more classical settings for dances than more modern music, then again he really did not enjoy the Yule Ball. I am surprised that he has even suggested this plan I guess he does truly care about his new found friends.' She sat curled up in front of the fire for another half an hour filling out ideas to present the following day, before finally heading to be and having strange dreams about green eyes and ice sculpted rooms.

Ooooo a ball hehe I can't wait to write that chapter, however many more to come before then...