I'm so so so so so so sorry for not updating sooner, but I got really super busy and had NO time to write. Anyway thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter, they were the best and every single one brightened my day. Okay now for the story related stuff. Hope you guys won't kill me because I cut out the part where Hermione smacks Malfoy and changed what Malfoys says and stuff, but I've got something else planned for later. Um . . . yeah you have to love Lupin in this, I do. ( Oh wait I wrote the stuff he does in this chapter!) Anyway enjoy and I promise I'll try to be better about my updates.
Quitting, Working, and Waiting
The safety measures imposed on the students since Black's second break-in made it impossible for Harry, Harmony, Ron, and Hermione to go and visit Hagrid in the evenings. Their only chance of talking to him was during Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
He seemed numb with shock at the verdict.
"S' all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em . . ."
"There's still the appeal!" said Ron fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"
They were walking back up to the castle with the rest of the class. Ahead they could see Malfoy, who was walking with Crabbe and Goyle, and kept looking back, laughing derisively.
"S'no good, Ron," said Hagrid sadly as they reached the castle steps. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever has. I owe him that . . "
Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief.
"Look at him blubber!"
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening.
"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul—you evil—" Hermione said angrily.
"And why not?" Malfoy said.
"Because he's got a back bone and you don't. You're like cloth Malfoy you have no shape, nothing, until something is supporting you." Harmony said, looking at Crabbe and Goyle. "Let's go." She said talking to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"You'd better beat him in the Quidditch final!" Hermione said, still fuming. "You just better had, because I can't stand it if Slytherin wins!"
"We're due in Charms," said Ron.
They hurried up the marble staircase toward Professor Flitwick's classroom.
"You're late!" said Professor Flitwick reprovingly as Harry opened the classroom door. "Come along, quickly, wands out, we're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into pairs—"
Harry and Ron hurried to a desk at the back, Harmony sat at the table next to them by Neville. They all opened their bags, Ron looked behind him.
"Where's Hermione gone?"
Harry and Harmony looked around too. Hermione hadn't entered the classroom, yet Harmony knew she'd been right next to Harry when they had opened the door.
"That's weird," said Harry. "Maybe—maybe she went to the bathroom or something?"
But Hermione didn't turn up all lesson or at lunch. By the time they had finished their apple pie, the after-effects of the Cheering Charms were wearing off, and Harry, Ron, and Harmony had started to get slightly worried.
They went up to the Tower when they were finished with lunch.
They passed the security trolls, gave the Fat Lady the password ("Flibbertigibbet"), and scrambled through the portrait hole into the common room.
Hermione was sitting at a table, fast asleep, her head resting on an open Arithmancy book. They went to sit down on either side of her with Harmony falling next to Harry. Harry prodded Hermione awake.
"Wh—what?" said Hermione, waking with a start and staring wildly around. "Is it time to go? W—which lesson have we got now?"
"Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes," said Harmony. "Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?"
"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"
"But how could you forget?" said Harry. "You were with us till we were right outside the classroom!"
"I don't believe it!" Hermione wailed. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Malfoy, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!"
"You know what, Hermione?" said Ron, looking down at the enormous Arithmancy book Hermione had been using as a pillow. "I reckon you're cracking up. You're trying to do too much."
"No, I'm not!" said Hermione, brushing her hair out of her eyes and staring hopelessly around for her bag. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry . . . I'll see you in Divination!"
Hermione joined them at the foot of the ladder to Professor Trelawney's classroom twenty minutes later, looking extremely harassed.
"I can't believe I missed Cheering Charms! And I bet they come up in out exams; Professor Flitwick hinted they might!"
Together they climbed the ladder into the dim, stifling tower room. Glowing on every little table was a crystal ball full of pearly white mist. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Harmony sat down together at the same rickety table.
"I thought we weren't starting crystal balls until next term," Ron muttered, casting a wary eye around for Professor Trelawney, in case she was lurking nearby.
"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry," Harry muttered back. "I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands."
"Me too," Harmony said.
"Good day to you!" said the familiar, misty voice, and Professor Trelawney made her usual dramatic entrance out of the shadows. Parvati and Lavender quivered with excitement, their faces lit by the milky glow of their crystal ball.
"I have decided to introduce you to the crystal ball a little earlier than I had planned," said Professor Trelawney, sitting with her back to the fire and gazing around. "The fates have informed me that your examination in June will concern the Orb, and I am anxious to give you sufficient practice."
Hermione snorted.
"Well, honestly . . .'the fates have informed her' . . . who sets the exam? She does! What an amazing prediction!" she said, not troubling to keep her voice low. Harry, Ron, and Harmony choked back laughs.
It was hard to tell whether Professor Trelawney had heard them, as her face was hidden in shadow. She continued, however, as though she had not.
"Crystal gazing is a particularly refined art," she said dreamily. "I do not expect any of you to See when first you peer into the Orb's infinite depths. We shall start by practicing relaxing the conscious mind and external eyes"—Ron began to snigger uncontrollably and had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stifle the noise—"so as to clear the Inner Eye and the superconscious. Perhaps, if we are lucky, some of you will See before the end of the class."
And so they began. Harmony, at least, felt extremely foolish, staring blankly at the crystal ball, trying to keep her mind empty when thoughts such as "and I'm supposed to be seeing what exactly?" kept drifting across it. It didn't help that Ron kept breaking into silent giggles and Hermione kept tutting.
"Seen anything yet?" Harry asked after a quarter of an hour's quiet crystal gazing.
"Yeah there's a burn on this table," said Ron, pointing. "Someone's spilled their candle."
"This is such a waste of time," Hermione hissed. "I could be practicing something useful. I could be catching up on Cheering Charms—"
Professor Trelawney rustled past.
"Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents within their Orb?" she murmured over the clinking of the bangles.
"I don't need help," Ron whispered. "It's obvious what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight."
Harry, Hermione, and Harmony burst out laughing.
"Now, really!" said Professor Trelawney as everyone's heads turned to their direction. Parvati and Lavender were looking scandalized. "You are disturbing the clairvoyant vibrations!" She approached their table and peered into their crystal ball. Harmony felt her heart sinking. She was sure she knew what was coming—
"There is something here!" Professor Trelawney whispered, lowering her face to the ball, so that it was reflected twice in her huge glasses. "Something moving . . . but what is it?"
Harmony was prepared to bet everything she owned, including her Firebolt, that it wasn't good news, whatever it was. And sure enough—
"My dears . . . ," Professor Trelawney breathed, gazing up at Harry and Harmony. "It is here, plainer than ever before . . . my dears, stalking toward you, growing ever closer . . . the Gr—"
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" said Hermione loudly. "Not that ridiculous Grim again!"
Professor Trelawney raised her enormous eyes to Hermione's face. Parvati whispered something to Lavender, and they both glared at Hermione too. Professor Trelawney stood up, surveying Hermione with unmistakable anger.
"I am sorry to say that from the moment you have arrived in this class, my dear, it has been apparent that you do not have what the noble art of Divination requires. Indeed, I don't remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane."
There was a moment's silence. Then—
"Fine!" said Hermione suddenly, getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future back into her bag. "Fine!" she repeated, swinging the bag over her shoulder and almost knocking Ron off his chair. "I give up! I'm leaving!"
And to the whole class's amazement, Hermione strode over to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and climbed down the ladder out of sight.
It took a few minutes for the class to settle down again. Professor Trelawney seemed to have forgotten all about the Grim. She turned abruptly from Harry and Ron's table, breathing rather heavily as she tugged her gauzy shawl more closely to her.
"Ooooo!" said Lavender suddenly, making everyone start. "Oooooo, Professor Trelawney, I've just remembered! You saw her leaving, didn't you? Didn't you, Professor? 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever!' You said it ages ago, Professor!"
Professor Trelawney gave her a dewy smile.
"Yes, my dear, I did indeed know that Miss Granger would be leaving us. One hopes, however, that one might have mistaken the Signs . . . The Inner Eye can be a burden, you know . . ."
Lavender and Parvati looked deeply impressed, and moved over so that Professor Trelawney could join their table instead.
"Some day Hermione's having, eh?" Ron muttered to Harry and Harmony, looking awed.
"Yeah . . ." the twins answered together.
Harmony glanced into the crystal ball but saw nothing but swirling white mist. Had Professor Trelawney really seen the Grim again? Would she? The last thing she needed was another near-fatal accident, with the Quidditch final drawing ever nearer.
The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. The third years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one.
"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the common room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?"
But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Lupin's under her eyes, and seem constantly close to tears.
Ron had taken over responsibility for Buckbeak's appeal. When he wasn't doing his own work, he was poring over enormously tick volumes with names like The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality. He was so absorbed, he even forgot to be horrible to Crookshanks.
Harmony was just as bad if not worse. She was trying to help Ron as much as possible, keep up with her homework, work around Quidditch practice every day, and not to mention endless discussions of tactics with Wood. The Gryffindor-Slytherin match would take place on the first Saturday after the Easter holidays. Slytherin was leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points. This meant (as Wood constantly reminded his team) that they needed to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. This meant that Harmony was constantly going over scoring plays in her head.
The whole Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since the legendary Charlie Weasley (Ron's second oldest brother) had been Seeker. But Harmony doubted whether any of them, even Wood, wanted to win as much as she and her brother did. The enmity between the twins and Malfoy was at its highest point ever. Malfoy was still smarting about the mud-throwing incident in Hogsmeade and was even more furious that Harry and Harmony had somehow wormed their way out of punishment. Harmony hadn't forgotten Malfoy's attempt to sabotage her brother and her in the match against Ravenclaw, but it was the matter of Buckbeak that made her most determined to make sure Slytherin lost in front of the entire school.
Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their Houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.
Harmony (being the best Chaser) and Harry (being the Seeker) were having a particularly bad time of it. She and Harry couldn't walk to class without Slytherins sticking out their legs and trying to trip them up; Crabbe and Goyle kept popping up whenever they went, and slouching away looking disappointed when they saw them surrounded by people. Wood had give instructions that Harmony and Harry should be accompanied everywhere they went, in case the Slytherins tried to put them out of action. The whole of Gryffindor House took up the challenge enthusiastically, so that it was impossible for Harmony and Harry to get to classes on time because they went everywhere surrounded by a vast, chattering crowd. Harry was more concerned for his Firebolt's safety than his own. Harmony wasn't as worried, when she wasn't flying her Firebolt, she locked it securely in her trunk in The Abode because she knew no one, but Lupin and her could get in.
All usual pursuits were abandoned in the Gryffindor common room the night before the match. Even Hermione had put down her books.
"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said nervously.
There was a great deal of noise. Fred and George Weasley were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Oliver Wood was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself. Angelina and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Harmony and Harry were sitting with Ron and Hermione, removed from the center of things, trying not to think about the next day, because every time she did, she had the horrible sensation that something very large was fighting to get out of her stomach.
"You're going to be fine," Hermione told both Harmony and her brother, though she looked positively terrified.
"You've got Firebolts!" said Ron.
"Yeah . . . ," said Harmony, her stomach writhing.
It came as a relief when Wood suddenly stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!"
Harmony went back to The Abode to find Lupin in his chair.
"Off to bed, then?" Lupin asked.
"Yeah, Wood ordered us." Harmony said, still feeling nervous.
"Hey, don't be nervous." Lupin said, coming to stand in front of his goddaughter, putting his hands gently on her forearms. "And, yes, I know. I can see it in your eyes. You're too much like James and Lily."
"I just don't want to lose, not to Malfoy, not to Slytherin." Harmony said.
"Sometimes you will lose, Harmony." Lupin said.
"Yeah, but it doesn't have to be tomorrow." Harmony said.
Lupin laughed. "I'll be right there cheering you on tomorrow and no matter what, I'm proud of you." He hugged his goddaughter tight.
"Now off to bed with you." He said and pushed her gently toward her room.
Harmony walked toward her room. Right as she got to her door she stopped then she spun around and ran back to her godfather and threw her arms around him.
"I love you," Harmony said. "I'll always love you. Never listen to what I say if I ever say anything else."
"I love you too, Little One. I always have and I always will." Lupin said holding his goddaughter in another tight hug.
Harmony went to bed that night unafraid of what the next day might bring because either way, she knew three things . . . her godfather would be cheering her on at the match, he loved her, and he was proud of her and that's all she needed to make her fear go away.