Disclaimer: All characters etc belong to J K Rowling except for my own creations.

Chapter 21: Harry, Tom and Hermione

Severus entered his rooms just as Hermione was questioning her mother as to the identity of her suitor.

"Who on earth is Felidae Venant?" Hermione asked.

Her mother shook her head. "I have no idea."

Severus looked to his daughter. "You now have a choice to make. You can either accept the offer from your unknown suitor, or go with the option of marrying someone you know."

Hermione thought for a moment. "I'd rather take my chances with Mr. Venant, whoever he is."

Virginie had had a feeling that her daughter would choose the unknown suitor. "Are you sure?"

"I am." Hermione felt safe knowing that she could opt out of the offer at any time up until her eighteenth birthday. She just hoped that she found someone before then who would want to marry her.

"Then it's settled. I'll write back to the Notts and refuse their offer once more. Hopefully this time they'll get the message." Severus smiled as he took both letters into his study to compose suitable responses to them.

'Dear Caligula and Juno,

I hope my letter finds you both well. I was honored that you would reconsider your offer to my daughter, Hermione. However, I must once again offer you my sincere apologies as I regret to inform you that my daughter has already received, and accepted, another offer.

My wife and I both wish you and your family good health and happiness.

Deepest regards.

Severus Snape'

Severus smirked to himself. He knew that Caligula would try and make things difficult for him now that Hermione had again refused to marry his son. Severus however did not care. He was just glad that his daughter would not be forced into a marriage she didn't want because of pure-blood customary law. Also, Severus was only too well aware that many of his potions contacts were pure-blood traditionalists who would follow the rules of propriety to the letter. They would consider his daughter completely within her rights to refuse the Notts' offer as she had already accepted another. Caligula would therefore find it harder than he thought to impede Severus' connections with the potions world.

Severus then set out to compose a response to the mysterious Venant.

'Dear Mr. Venant,

I would like to thank you for requesting the hand of my daughter, Hermione, in marriage. My wife and I have spoken with her, and she is delighted to accept your offer provided the three conditions you set out are adhered to.

We are hosting a family dinner at Snape Manor on 21st November, and we would be delighted if you could attend as our guest. I will meet you at The Three Broomsticks at 7pm to escort you to my home, should you choose to accept this invitation.

Regards.

Severus Snape'

'Dear Mr. Snape,

I would be delighted to accept your invitation to dinner. I look forward to meeting you and your family on Saturday, and will meet you at The Three Broomsticks as requested.

Warmest regards.

Felidae Venant'

21st November 1992

Harry marched into the Great Hall and up to the Ravenclaw table. Draco and Pansy were both already seated at the table.

"Harry, come sit down." Draco waved Harry over.

A short time after his uncle's visit, Draco had recovered from his unknown affliction, and since then Pansy had refused to let him out of her sight. Frightened by his brush with death, and feeling somewhat lost without the companionship of the diary, Draco had given into Pansy's demands and had become part of the Outcasts. Harry and the others had welcomed him with open arms, and even though it had only been a few days since he'd joined the group, Draco already felt like an integral part of the Outcasts. Even so, Draco still occasionally wished he had the diary to turn to, and a small part of him regretted throwing it into the fire. However, without the diary to rely on, and remembering Harry's kindness to him after one of his blackouts, Draco still felt as if he needed someone he could put his trust in, and as a consequence he'd pretty much attached himself to Harry.

Harry had just sat down when Hedwig flew in. Harry took the letter off her leg and ripped it open, only to stuff it into his pocket, disgusted after reading its contents.

Pansy reached over and put her hand over Harry's. 'Is everything all right?"

Pulling his hand away, Harry just nodded curtly at her, and got up. "Excuse me, there's something I need to do."

Down in her Slytherin bedroom, Hermione woke up feeling a little excited. She had not told her parents but she was quite eager to meet her unknown suitor. After getting dressed, she headed off to the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry was waiting for her outside the entrance.

"Hi, Hermione. Can I have a word?" Harry asked.

"Right now?" Hermione was quite hungry.

"Please. Let's go down to the lake." Harry took Hermione by the arm and led her away from the room.

Hermione sighed as she took one last look at the food piled on the tables.

As they reached the lake, Harry turned to her. "Is it true you've accepted an offer from someone you don't even know?"

Shivering, Hermione wished that Harry had chosen somewhere a little warmer to hold their discussion. "Yes, it is. You know what the alternative was."

"How do you know that this person won't be worse than Nott?" Harry couldn't help but be concerned.

"I don't, but I'm willing to take my chances." Hermione had agreed with her parents that they would not disclose the conditions of the offer to anyone.

Harry was far from happy to hear this. "What about Neville? He's really upset that you don't want to talk to him."

Hermione was amazed that Harry would even bother to bring up the subject of Neville, especially after how Neville had treated her. "Neville has no right to be upset about anything. He practically ignored me after the Parseltongue incident, and then he withdrew his marriage offer."

"That was his mother," Harry pointed out.

"It doesn't matter who it was. Anything between me and Neville is now over." Hermione wanted to get back to the Great Hall, and turned to leave, only for Harry to roughly grab her by the arm. "Harry, you're hurting me."

Harry let go. "I'm sorry. I just don't want you to leave. Things between us have seemed so awkward lately. Not to mention the fact that I've got Neville complaining about you, Draco following me around like a lost sheep, and Pansy thinking that we're dating just because I took her to the Halloween Ball."

Hermione looked more closely at Harry. Her easygoing friend had seemed out of sorts for the last few weeks, and did not look as if he had been sleeping well. "I'm sorry, Harry, but I've got to get some breakfast before leaving for Snape Manor. I'm meeting my fiancé at dinner tonight." The word 'fiancé' felt strange on Hermione's tongue. "Look, we can get together tomorrow."

"Whatever." Harry spat out the word and, without bothering to say goodbye, headed back to the school.

Hermione watched as Harry walked away from her. She didn't know what was wrong with her friend but his behavior had been totally out of character. She then wondered how Harry had known that she didn't personally know Felidae Venant. The Daily Prophet had printed the marriage declaration the previous day but nothing had been mentioned about her not being acquainted with her intended. Deciding that she would worry about it tomorrow, she headed in the same direction Harry had just gone in.

Later that evening

Hermione checked her reflection once more before going down to join her parents in the dining room. A tall dark-haired man stood with his back to her.

Seeing Hermione come in, Severus addressed his guest. "Felidae, I would like you to meet my daughter, Hermione."

Hermione nearly gasped when the stranger turned around; he was absolutely gorgeous. His black hair fell lazily around his chiseled face; his eyes were a vivid green, reminding her a little of Harry's natural eye color; and his lips were full and, many would have said made for kissing, but being as young as she was, this thought did not occur to Hermione. However, Hermione still felt herself blushing as he approached her and took her hand.

"Miss Snape, the pleasure is all mine."

Felidae watched, almost amused, as he saw the reaction his looks had on the girl. Even though she was only thirteen, he could already see signs of the pretty young woman she would become.

For once in her life, Hermione was almost speechless. She could hardly believe that this stranger was interested in her; he could have picked any woman he wanted. Finding her voice, she managed to force out a greeting. "I'm pleased to meet you."

Felidae withdrew his hand and turned to face Severus and Virginie. "I have something to ask of you, and I'm aware of the impropriety of this request, but I wonder if it would be possible to speak with your daughter alone?"

Virginie recognizing the man's obvious need for some privacy, put a hand on Severus' arm to warn him to say nothing. "Of course, you may use the study across the hall. Hermione, please show Mr. Venant into the study."

Hermione nervously led the way into the study. "Please come in. What do you wish to discuss with me?"

Felidae closed the door and turned to Hermione. "Before I say anything more, I should be grateful if you would give me your oath that what we are about to discuss will stay strictly between the two of us, Miss Snape."

Hermione wondered what was so important that this stranger felt the need to extract an oath from her. Assuming that she would not find out unless she complied with his request, she took out her wand. "I swear on my magic that what we discuss will stay between the two of us, unless we both agree otherwise, and please, call me Hermione."

Felidae visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Hermione. Please feel free to call me Felidae. I must be honest though, my real name isn't actually Felidae Venant. For reasons I won't go into at the moment, I would prefer not to reveal my true identity to you just yet."

Hermione was not entirely surprised. She had never heard of anyone with a name like Felidae Venant. She looked carefully at him. If he had lied about his name, she wondered if he was also covering up what he really looked like. "Are you really that good looking?"

Hermione then blushed, realizing that she had let Venant know that she found him attractive.

Felidae grinned. "No, I'm not. I'm much more handsome!"

Hermione wanted to laugh at his cheeky comment. "Are you going to show me what you really look like? I've already taken an oath not to reveal anything without your agreement."

Deciding it could do little harm, Felidae dropped his glamour. "See, I told you I was much more handsome."

He had been right, he was. Hermione was once more struck speechless.

Felidae watched Hermione's brow crinkle into a frown. "You know who I am, don't you?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, but you do look awfully familiar."

"All I ask is that should you work it out, that you don't reveal it to anyone." Felidae was surprised. He had not really expected Hermione to recognize him; otherwise he would never have dropped his glamour.

"Of course I won't; I've already sworn an oath. We should return to the dining room now." Hermione started to move towards the door.

Felidae stopped her by placing a hand gently on her should. "Actually, that wasn't what I brought you in here for."

Hermione felt her heart begin to race a little. "Why did you bring me in here then?"

Felidae exhaled. "I can't tell you who I am at the moment but I would like to at least be candid as to why I'm doing this."

Curious, Hermione indicated that he should continue. "Please, go on."

"My offer for you stems from a friend's request," he started to explain.

"A request?" Hermione questioned.

"Yes. My friend wrote to me asking for my assistance. My friend's son had written to him asking for his help to get you out of the Nott situation. My friend knew that my knowledge of pure-blood rituals and customs is almost unrivalled; as far as I know, only my mother, who is an archivist, knows more them about than I do." Felidae smiled as he thought of his bright and bubbly mother.

Hermione was a little puzzled. "Why would you make an offer just because your friend asked for your help?"

Felidae sighed; he knew Hermione was not going to like his answer. "I don't mean to be insulting but I did it to fulfill a life debt that I owed to my friend."

"Oh." Despite Felidae's assertion that he did not mean to be insulting, Hermione still felt a little upset. No girl wanted to hear that someone had proposed to them because of a debt.

Felidae continued. "I owed my friend the life debt after he rescued me from a situation that I had voluntarily gotten myself into. He risked his own life to save me. I would have died without his help."

Hermione struggled to hold back her tears and looked down at the floor. She knew she should have known that something more must have prompted Felidae to propose; someone who looked the way he did would never really have been interested in a plain, young girl like her. "I understand."

Felidae gently put a hand under Hermione's chin, and tilted it up so that she had to meet his eyes. "I don't think you do. Even if I hadn't owed the life debt, I would still have made the offer to you."

Not really convinced by Felidae's protestation, Hermione moved out of his grip, and decided to steer the discussion into a less hurtful direction. "So, who is your friend?"

Felidae just smiled. "My friend asked me not to reveal his identity."

Hermione then thought about what Felidae had just told her. "You said your friend's son had written to him to ask for help. It must be someone I know then."

Having very few male friends, and even fewer that would go to such lengths for her, Hermione deduced who it must have been. "Your friend's son is Harry Lupin, isn't it?"

Felidae was surprised at Hermione's shrewd observation, and decided that he might as well be totally frank with her. It was not as if she could discuss the matter with anyone else. "It is. Harry even offered to marry you himself, if no other way could be found to extricate you from the situation."

Hermione felt her heart leap at the thought of Harry's selfless act. Then she thought about how she had pushed him aside that morning at the lake. At least she knew now how Harry had been aware that she didn't know Felidae. "Now I feel really guilty; I wasn't very nice to Harry today. He came to see me to complain about my accepting your offer without knowing who you were."

"Harry obviously cares about you a great deal," Felidae pointed out.

Hermione nodded, and responded in a flat tone. "I know. He considers me his best friend."

Felidae hid his smile. Hermione obviously cared for Harry in more than just a friendly way and, from what Remus had told him, he had every reason to believe that Harry felt the same way. "His concern for you would appear to be far more than just for his best friend."

Hermione dismissed Felidae's comment. "Harry would've done the same for any of his friends."

"What, even the boys?" Felidae was unable to resist mocking Hermione's comment.

Hermione laughed, which had been the result for which Felidae had been aiming.

A thought then occurred to Hermione. "Why didn't Harry just offer me the same deal as you did?"

"Remus, Harry's father, wouldn't allow it. I told Remus that, in accordance with pure-blood customs, this time you would have to accept an offer and not just hold it in abeyance in order to avoid becoming engaged to Nott. I did offer up the idea of the agreement but he was worried that if you refused to rescind it before your eighteenth birthday, Harry would be forced to marry you. With no alternative available, I offered up myself in Harry's place. Remus then told me that he considered the life debt fulfilled," Felidae explained, backing his words that he would have made the offer anyway.

"So you didn't know that Mr. Lupin was going to cancel the life debt in exchange for your taking Harry's place?" Hermione's ego needed bolstering, and she hoped that he would answer in the negative.

Felidae shook his head. "No, I didn't. When I offered, I was doing it purely as a favor to a friend."

Hermione now appreciated that Felidae had been telling the truth earlier when he had said that he would have done it even without the inducement of the cancellation of the life debt. She also appreciated the fact that this man had taken a huge risk in trying to help out a friend. If Hermione had decided to continue with the engagement, Felidae would have found himself trapped in a marriage he didn't really want.

"What are you going to do, if I reach eighteen and decide that you are my one true love?"

Felidae went a little pale, but gallantly stuck to what he had agreed. "I will marry you, of course."

Hermione grinned. "Don't worry. I give you my word that I won't make you marry me, unless you fall madly in love with me, of course!"

Felidae barked out a laugh; he was surprised that for such a young girl she had a wicked sense of humor. "Who knows? Stranger things have happened. Now perhaps we should rejoin your parents before they begin to wonder what I've done with you."

Smirking, Hermione let Felidae lead her out of the room.

Back at Hogwarts, Harry walked into the common room to find Luna, Draco, Dudley, and Pansy all huddled around a table playing partnered chess.

Pansy's face lit up at the sight of him, and she patted a chair next to her. "Hi, Harry, do you want to sit down?"

"Thanks." Harry smiled amiably at Pansy who promptly slipped her hand into his. "Actually, I was thinking of going for a walk. Would you like to come with me?"

Pansy felt her tummy flop over with nerves. "I'd love to. I'll just go get my cloak."

Harry stood and waited while she ran up to the girl's dormitory, and Dudley looked up from the game to give his brother a reminder. "You've only got an hour before curfew."

"I know. I just need some fresh air." Harry held out his hand as Pansy came back down.

Dudley stared at the pair as they headed out of the common room hand in hand. Something was not right with Harry. He had no idea as to what was wrong but lately his brother had not seemed like himself. Shaking his head, Dudley turned his attention back to the game. He would speak to Harry later.

As the pair passed the entrance to the second floor, Harry stopped. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Pansy asked.

"I'm not sure; I thought I heard a voice," Harry told her.

Feeling inexplicably uncomfortable, Pansy pulled Harry down a few stairs. "It's probably nothing. Come on, let's go."

He pulled his hand out of hers. "I'm going to have a look."

Pansy watched as Harry disappeared up the corridor. Not wanting him to think she was scared, she set off after him. She was surprised when she was unable to find him.

"Harry, where are you?" No reply came back to her.

Suddenly, she suddenly heard a strange grinding noise coming from the room to her left. "Harry, are you in there?"

Pulling out her wand with a shaky hand, Pansy uttered 'Lumos' and entered the room she had heard the noise coming from. As she did so, she slipped on something wet. Surprised, she dropped her wand. Looking down to see where she had dropped it, she missed seeing a large hole where one of the sinks should have been. She also missed the creature sliding out from within the hole's confines.

Harry entered the Ravenclaw common room. "Has anyone seen Pansy? We'd gotten downstairs when she said that she'd forgotten something and would be back in a minute. That was almost an hour ago."

Luna answered. "She hasn't been back here. Do you suppose she's okay?"

"I don't know."

"She probably saw someone she knew, or perhaps she went to the library," Dudley suggested.

"I've looked there already," Harry told him.

"It's not like Pansy. If she said she would only be a minute, then I know she wouldn't have taken much longer that. Besides, she really likes you, Harry. No way would she have just gone off and not come back." Draco knew his friend would never have just left Harry waiting. "We need to tell Professor Flitwick."

Cho Chang looked up. "He's not here. He's gone to some Ministry function this evening."

"What should we do?" Harry asked Draco.

"Let's split into groups and go look for her," Luna chimed in.

Cho disagreed. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'll firecall Professor McGonagall." She stood up and threw floo powder into the Ravenclaw fireplace, calling out the Professor's name.

Professor McGonagall's head appeared within a few moments. "What is it, Miss Chang?"

Cho explained what had happened. "Should we go look for her ourselves?"

"Absolutely not. Please all stay where you are. I'll be there momentarily," the Professor told Cho. A few moments later, she was brushing the dust off her clothing as she stepped into the Ravenclaw common room.

"Mr. Lupin, where did you last see Miss Parkinson?" Minerva asked the scared looking second year.

"On the ground floor. We were about to go out for a walk when she said that she'd forgotten something and would be back in a minute," Harry said, telling the teacher the same thing as he had told his friends. "After almost half an hour had gone by and she hadn't come back, I went looking for her. I couldn't find her so I came back here. It's now been almost an hour since I last saw her."

"Everyone please stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can." Minerva headed for the door and once outside, changed into her Animagus form. She knew she would be able to see better in her cat form in the dimly lit corridors.

After searching every floor, and alerting various staff members along the way, Minerva finally found herself on the second floor. She had deliberately left this floor until last, not wanting to involve Lockhart unless she really had to. Padding up the corridor, she suddenly noticed a small puddle of water trailing out of the disused girls' bathroom. Transforming, she pulled out her wand and walked cautiously into the room. Looking down, she realized that she had found Pansy.

Harry entered Dumbledore's office with Minerva following closely behind him. "You wanted to see me, Sir?"

"Ah, Mr. Lupin, I did. Professor McGonagall tells me that you were the last person to see Miss Parkinson before she was found in the girl's bathroom." Dumbledore smiled kindly at the boy.

Harry was shaking as he sat down. "Yes, Sir. We were going for a walk when she realized she'd forgotten something and headed back to Ravenclaw to get it. I should have gone with her."

Professor McGonagall patted his shoulder. "There now, Mr. Lupin, you couldn't have known that anything would happen to her."

Dumbledore had no reason to believe that Harry had had anything to do with what had happened to Miss Parkinson but, after what had happened to him the last time he tried to access Harry's mind, he did not dare try Legilimency to check Harry's story. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Harry just shook his head. "No, Sir."

"Since there's nothing else Mr. Lupin can tell us about what happened, I'll escort him back to the Ravenclaw common room." Minerva started to head towards the door.

"Professor, might I suggest you use the fireplace. I don't want anyone wandering the hallways this late at night," Dumbledore told her.

Grateful for his offer, Minerva was soon stepping into the Ravenclaw common room with Harry in tow. Turning to the boy, she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Mr. Lupin, please remember that this isn't your fault. Now off to bed with you, and do try to get some sleep." With that, she stepped back into the fireplace and disappeared in a flash of green flames.

Harry headed up to his room and, not bothering to undress, lay down on his bed.

Dudley had waited up for his brother to return. "Harry, you okay?"

"Yeah, I just want to go to sleep," Harry told him.

Harry then sat up and pulled the curtains around his bed so that they hid him from view. After casting silencing spells around his bed, he pulled out the diary and a biro from under his pillow. Opening the diary, he began to write.

'Tom?'

'Yes, Harry?'

'I'm scared.'

'Why?'

'I was going downstairs for a walk with Pansy, like you suggested, when I suddenly thought I heard a noise as we were going past the second floor entrance. The next thing I knew, I was standing on the ground floor. I have a vague memory of Pansy saying she had forgotten something and would be back after a few minutes. She never came back.'

'What happened?'

'I went looking for her but couldn't find her anywhere. In the end, one of my teachers found her in the girls' bathroom on the second floor.'

'Was she all right?'

Harry shook his head before realizing that Tom was unable to see him.

'No. What if I did it to her?'

'Do you think you did something to her?'

'Of course not.'

'Then don't worry then.'

Harry stopped writing.

'Are you still there, Harry?'

'Yes. I'm just thinking.'

'About what?'

'My memory of Pansy saying she was going to get something.'

'Why?'

'Because the memory doesn't feel right.'

'What do you mean?'

'It's almost as if the memory is all foggy.'

'What do you mean, foggy?'

Harry thought for a moment.

'I don't know; it's hard to describe. It's almost as if I was looking at the memory through a dirty mirror.'

'You've received a nasty shock. Shock can do strange things to people's memory.'

'Perhaps you're right. I think I need to get some sleep. Goodnight, Tom.'

'Goodnight, Harry.'

Harry closed the diary and put it back under his bed. Ten minutes later he was asleep.

In the diary, Tom was deep in thought. He been unsurprised when Harry had told him that the memory of Pansy leaving had seemed foggy. It had been a fake memory that he had planted in the boy's mind after taking him over.

Tom then contemplated his pet's victims. The cat had been a trial run and had been no great loss to anyone. The boy, Ron, had been a mistake; he had sent Carus after the Mudblood photographer who followed the Boy Who Lived and his sidekick everywhere. Carus had been closing in on her prey when the Mudblood had suddenly ran back off to the Great Hall, leaving the redheaded boy, Ron, alone. Luckily for Ron, he had only seen his Carus' reflection in the window as she returned to her lair.

Pansy's attack, however, had been deliberate. Despite the girl being a pure-blood, Tom had grown sick of reading Harry's complaints about her. Deciding to get rid of her, he had persuaded Harry to ask the girl to take a walk with him. Tom still could not believe that Pansy had managed to slip and drop her wand in a puddle at the exact moment Carus had emerged from the tunnels below. The girl had only seen a reflection of his pet in the puddle, thereby rendering her immobile, rather than dead.

Tom knew that he would be unable to try anything again yet, as he had only just started to gain Harry's trust. As Harry's trust in Tom had grown, Harry had eventually opened up about his friends and family. Harry had explained that he did not really know who his parents had been and that he had been adopted.

Of all Harry's friends, Tom was most interested in Hermione Snape. Harry had told Tom of everyone shunning his best friend just because she was a Parselmouth. Tom knew of only one other family, besides his own, who was able to converse in Parseltongue, and they were definitely pure-blood. Once he regained his body, Tom decided that Hermione might be worth using as a vessel to carry his future heir.

Tom laughed to himself as he recalled that, at first, Carus had actually wanted to eat Harry but Tom had pointed out that it was through Harry that he was able to release her from her confines in the Chamber. His pet had complained that the boy was not pure and she should therefore be allowed to feed upon him. Tom had forbidden her to do so, leading to her slithering off in a sulk.

Even though Harry was not a pure-blood, Tom could feel the potentially untapped power that ran through the boy, which was, even now, feeding his own growing consciousness. However, as much as Tom reveled in the power that Harry possessed, Tom contemplated whether he needed to find another host, as he had experienced great difficulty in possessing Harry.

And although Harry trusted him now, the boy had almost thrown Tom's influence off on more than occasion. More frustrating, however, was Tom's inability to access Harry's deepest thoughts and memories. He had been able to skim Harry's mind for surface thoughts but that had been all. It was not as if the boy was a natural Occlumens, he wasn't, and Tom knew that; after all, he was a master at Legilimency, even at the age of sixteen.

The idea of having to find a new host was most vexing. First, Draco had proved more resilient than he had would have ever thought possible, resulting in the boy throwing the diary into the heart of the Ravenclaw fire. Now Harry appeared to be growing more resistant to him as well. However, with Harry's latent power almost acting as a drug for him, Tom decided to wait it out and see what happened the next time he tried to take Harry over.

The next day

Harry awoke early. Deciding he was unable to lie in bed, he got up and headed down to the common room, where he was surprised to find Draco sitting by the fireplace, reading a book.

"Draco, what are you doing up?" Harry asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Draco retorted.

"Are you okay?" Harry noticed the dark circles beneath Draco's eyes.

Draco shook his head. "Not really. I couldn't sleep last night thinking about what happened to Pansy."

Harry looked guilty. "I'm so sorry. I really shouldn't have left her alone."

"Don't be silly. You couldn't have known what would happen," Draco pointed out.

Harry smiled; at least Draco didn't blame him. "Thanks."

"Come on, let's go get some breakfast." Draco put down his book.

Harry's stomach rumbled at the thought of breakfast and he quickly headed for the exit, Draco close behind him.

Hermione had gotten up early and saw Harry coming into the Great Hall. She jumped up and hurried over to him. "Hi, Harry."

Harry kept his voice neutral. "Hermione, I didn't think you'd be back yet."

"Papa and I came back last night. I've a lot of homework I need to get done before tomorrow," Hermione explained. "Look Harry, do you want to get together this afternoon?"

Harry brushed her off. "I've already arranged to do something with Draco."

Hermione's face fell a little. "That's all right. I'll see you in the Library tomorrow after lessons then."

"I'll see you then." Harry turned his back on Hermione and, pulling Draco along with him, headed towards the Ravenclaw table.

"So what have we got arranged, Harry?" Draco wanted to know.

"I thought you might like to come down to the quidditch field and sit in on the practice. You can try out my broom if you want." Harry was still angry with Hermione after their discussion the previous day and had not really wanted to speak to her at all.

Draco's face lit up. "That would be great."

The two then fell into a discussion about quidditch. When breakfast was finally over, they left the room together still engrossed in their discussion, Harry failing to notice Hermione's beseeching look as he walked past the Slytherin table. Hiding her tears, Hermione got up and headed back to her room.