Massive Thanks to: Jeremie for the beta – well actually he did the beta and then I had to edit it, and then I posted it after two sets of rewrites.
H/Hr or H/A: First of all - It's important to remember that this fic is going to span Harry's last three years of school. So until the very end, where I write "the end" – nothing is final. Harry, Hermione, Alicia will all date other people, make mistakes and most importantly learn. The exact ending pair is in the epilogue of the series – no use trying to guess the couples.
If I ever say Harry/Hermione or Harry/Alicia – beware, I might just be trying to please you. This fic is complex – and will have relationships of various nature and various seriousness with people.
I used H/Hr as a keyword and in the sorting of the fic – because there is a fairly large amount of H/Hr in it. But as you can already see that aside from the little H/Hr – there's a lot of Harry/Alicia happening. Ron/Hermione is there too. I don't like to even hint as to how it'll end - but I promise, no matter what happens, both H/A and H/Hr people will love the ending – I think you will. I'm sorry for not being more specific, but I'd like to keep some things secret.
Reviews: Lots of reviews… of them - thanks.
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Harry Potter and Septanic Dueling
(part 1 of 3 in
the Septanic Saga)
~Nappa
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Chapter 45: Val de Mort (part II)
Harry went to sleep quickly after Ron was shooed out the hospital wing. As Harry had expected, things happened just as they had last time he had tried to astralproject himself. Small thin and glowing strands that frayed out like lightning attacked his body – causing him to convulse in pain. The strands were either purple or an orangish yellow colour. Since they were attacking him from all direction and from all objects as far as Harry could seem it appeared to him that everything in the astralworld seemed to be tinted yellow, purple or a surreal mixture of both.
Harry had improved remarkably from his previous attempts however. The last time he had tried, he woke upon opening his eyes, such was the level of pain. This time, the urgency to make sure Hermione was safe combined with practice and a bit of luck – he managed to stand up to the pain. The pain was still there, but only as much as a quill continuously stabbing him.
Harry rested a bit – not gathering strength – he was far too much of hurry to do that, but to recover and get used to the pain. He knew he had to get up slowly and let himself get used to sitting up. He'd be there a while before he could see her. However he wasn't as slow as he should have been - He turned too quickly to see Hermione in bed, and the pain went beyond his threshold. He had a chance to think one thought before he felt himself fall. " Yay! Progress.' He sarcastically thought, 'At this rate, I'll be a grandfather before I can start doing this with Hermione.'
He really wanted to talk to Hermione, and the inability to do so was frustrating. Mad at himself, he decided to wait until she was awake to talk to her. He expected himself to wake up in the Hospital wing; but that never happened. Instead, he woke up somewhere very alien.
~o0o~
It was a room that Harry had awakened on the floor of. What gave it that entirely alien feeling was the fact that there was no light difference on any of the walls due to the perspective. (ie. No tonal changes of light to dark on any of the walls). It was almost as if someone had dropped him onto a blank canvas. He did have one reason to think that it was a room – something hard under his feet supported him. Harry avoided looking down, because, though he was an experienced flyer, he was not used to feeling so totally disoriented.
In a way, Harry was glad when he heard a soft voice call out his name. It gave him something else to focus his mind on. He wondered if he was dead and if it was an angel calling him. Voice was melodious and not too bad to listen too. It was what he had always thought an angels voice would sound like – accept that it had a hint of needing in it. It drew him towards it – though he didn't know which direction it was coming from.
" Harry…" the voice called out again.
This time it was a bit louder and a bit more familiar – though try as he might he couldn't figure out exactly why. It did loose that angelic tone that had thought was there. He was certain that it was coming from behind him and he turned sharply in that direction.
Then the first of weird things happened. To Harry's amazement the "room" dissolved into the background of a classroom. It was almost as if a painting of a classroom had been sprayed with turpentine to get rid of all the paint – only in reverse.
When Harry heard the voice again, he noticed that someone else was in the room with him, legs drawn up to chest, sobbing in the far left corner of the room. He moved a bit closer and recognised who it was: Harry knew of only one bushy brown haired girl. Seeing her made him remember how he had felt following the Triwizard tournament – absolutely needing, out of guilt, to melt into the bed – or in her case, the wall.
Harry had no a clue as to the reason why he was here — wherever "here" was. He knew it was not the astralplane – not was it real. For all he knew, this Hermione was only a figment of his fertile imagination — very possible considering his experiences with nightmares. Or perhaps he was experiencing Hermione's current agony – he could not be sure because he did not know how they were linked after he shared some of his gifts with her. For some reason though, Harry could not bring himself to dissociate the person in front of him from the real Hermione, the one he knew.
Not knowing what to do, he coughed slightly – hoping that it would initiate something. Hermione seemed to become aware of him, but continued to do as had been doing before. He sat down next to her. Nightmare or not, he was not going to leave Hermione alone to cry.
A part of Harry had wanted to run to her and take away the pain – solitude had been a horrible experience for him and he would not wish any of his friends to go through it – but he didn't do it. He wanted to protect her, but somehow knew that he should not. Harry wanted to do it so much that he had to remind himself that he did not know the reason she was like that – for all he knew embracing her could send her off the edge. There could have been a million reasons as to why she was in such a state. A million – none of them would be there if he had a choice in removing them.
All he did was take a seat next to her. When she didn't pull away from him, he moved a bit closer, while still leaving her the freedom to be alone. It seemed like an eternity, before Hermione finally started moving. At first, it was only the sobs, which gradually died down. Then, he could feel her leaning ever-so-lightly on his shoulder.
Harry did nothing. The time did not seem right yet. Then she rested her head on his shoulder and just stared out at the classroom – finished with her sobbing. Now was the time, Harry felt that he should do something. He gently slid an arm around her back and tried to hug her, when Hermione suddenly wrapped her arm around him and hugged his side – very hard.
Thick silence filled the gap, before Hermione started to cry all over again. The only thing Harry could think of was to stroke her hair. It was hard to not express discomfort at being held so closely and so roughly. Hermione cried herself to an end and a lot of time elapsed before she was finally ready to talk.
" What took you so long?" She emphasised her anger towards Harry for being late, by squeezing him, hard. Harry silently thanked Merlin that it wasn't any vital organ. Hermione had faced Harry when she spoke, letting him see her tear-stained cheeks and red eyes, still filled with tears.
" Sorry." He said, though he didn't know why.
Hermione half-cried and half-laughed at Harry – confusing the hell out of him. She brushed off her tears and dried her cheek with the back of her hand, before saying, " I thought you'd be here sooner — that's all."
" I couldn't go to sleep." Now it was Hermione's turn to look puzzled. Harry explained, " After Professor Dumbledore left, I tried to go to sleep – hoping that I could maybe astralproject to talk to you… but the harder I tried-"
" -the longer it took?" Hermione finished Harry's sentence.
" Uh-huh." Harry said nodding his head. " Ron was a lot of help. He showed up with a chess game and well... I'm here – talking to you."
Hermione smiled weakly at Harry. " Thanks." Hermione said hugging Harry's side harder. He could feel her body shake next to his – it was almost as if Hermione was trying to stabilise herself by holding onto Harry.
" Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked thinking that maybe she was ready to talk to him. Hermione shook her head to say no and tried to divert his attention: " Wanna practice some fighting?", she gingerly asked. Harry knew very well what she was trying at, but decided to follow the lead, deciding it best not to confront Hermione. Again, he did not know if she was real or a figment of his imagination – but either way he realised she was best left alone. " If you're sure you want to."
" I do." Hermione sounded very resolute. Harry nodded to her proposal and the room started fading into a new one – invoking the same disorientating sensation, worsened. Harry learned something new about where he was – as bad as he was feeling, he could not throw up. It would have been a welcome relief if he was somehow able to throw up – then the feeling would not have had been that terrible.
After a few moments, when the background had settled and he felt a bit better, he noticed that they were in a room very much like the class in which Professor Pasha held his dueling classes – though there were a few notable exceptions to the room. The most striking one was that a wall, which in reality lead outside, was here blocked off by a collection of ceiling-scraping shelves – they were filled with book.
On the three other walls were pictures of Harry... Ron, Victor, Collin, Ginny and all the people that Harry knew, as well as a few that he did not. Draco was there in some of those. Another odd thing he did notice was the lack of pictures with Hermione in them and the ones of her seemed to be pictures of pictures. A few pictures of Hermione's parents were hanged there too, but they looked a bit younger than last time he had seen them. But he put them down to him missing a year in Morocco and not remembering them correctly.
There was an odd sort of order to the pictures, but other than that fact, Harry did not know what. Just when he had decided that he was going to ask Hermione, he realised she was not beside him anymore. Looking around he found her in near one of the pictures – nostalgically pulling her fingers along the shimmering golden frame. " Remember this one?" She asked, when he went and stood net to her.
Harry looked at the picture and could not place it.
Hermione didn't wait for him to answer – almost as if she knew he didn't. That's what Harry thought – either that or that she was rather anxious to talk about anything other than what was bothering her.
" It happened a year ago – for you." She said, looking deeply into the picture. " When we went to Morocco and got those first few lessons in Dueling – well, this was part of it."
Harry tried to remember it, but failed. He knew the picture was vaguely familiar. When Harry did not say anything – Hermione continued. She did not give him much time anyway. " It was on the second day of our visit. I have you in a chokehold in this one."
All of a sudden the memories from deep in his mind were released, and he remembered the event. He could place the picture now – but it still seemed slightly odd. He did remember it happening that way – but it did not look like what he remembered. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione had already moved onto another picture. She was smiling at it.
" Remember this?" she asked of him.
Harry looked and saw that it was a picture of Draco petting his cheek. Again it looked familiar, but he could not make out where or when the picture was from. " Third year – when I slapped him." Harry did remember that day – but not the picture. It was his most pleasant memory with Draco in it and he was amazed that he could not situate the images. Hermione showed him a few more pictures and each time the same thing happened. The oddness of the pictures did not go away once she did tell him where and when they had taken place.
Finally Harry asked before she moved onto another picture – almost like she was enjoying stroll through the memory lane more than the practice fighting they were supposed to do. He had to know why she could place the images – yet he was the one that was gifted with a better memory.
" Isn't it obvious, Harry?" She waved her arms about like Harry was missing the most obvious of the clues. Maybe he was. " – you're inside my mind." Hermione finished with such coolness that he had to believe that, to her this was the most natural thing in the world. " There aren't any pictures of me – that much anyway - and the ones that are here, they're are of pictures. Everything is from my viewpoint and that's why they look different to you then they did for me. Plus those pictures there..." Hermione indicated to a far corner of the wall, " of my parents should been a big clue."
Harry had caught onto the clues – but he never managed to get put it together. He thought that Hermione could have had been a bit more tactful about her answers – but then again sometimes Hermione just said what she thought. The picture Hermione had showed him was of a young couple. They looked just a few years older than the other picture of Hermione's parents that he had seen this time, there was a baby in their arms. It was a picture from an album that Hermione had seen.
" You sound awfully content about this." Harry said, wanting to focus her attention away from what she thought was simple clues. Harry put up a calm front, but in reality he was very rattled. He did not know what kind of things were in her mind and was worried that something would pop up that would embarrass him or her. After seeing images of Dudley's dream in his Astral Projection, Harry was afraid that something like that would happen again.
If he found out things like childhood memories and/or whom she loved – and those were things that he could think of off the top of his head. It would pose a problem for him if he found out that Hermione truly loved Victor, and Ron asked about trying to date Hermione – it would put him in a position that he did not want to be in. How would he encourage Ron? How would he make sure that his friend did not take his reluctance help him in his quest to get Hermione's heart, in the wrong way?
There was also the possibility that he would see something that was " inappropriate" – things that would affect their friendship. His friendship with her he could not jeopardise – she was the only person with whom he could share his secret.
Looking distantly at the floor, she said, " I'm not okay with this as much as you think I am, Harry." She said accentuating the part about herself. " I'm guessing that somehow you ended up in my mind because of the gift that you passed onto me. I think it linked us a bit…" Her voice trailed off. Then she quickly looked up at Harry and he noticed she had brightened up a bit. " – like that nightmare in Morocco that we shared." She said excitedly – though she was not as excited about it as she normally would have been considering the brand new things she was learning. " You know the one where…"
" I know.."
" I think it's kind of like that." Hermione's face started to lose what little life that had been inserted into it. " That and the way my mind was..." She trailed off. Shaking herself of the things that she had been thinking, she quickly changed the topic. " Can we talk about this after we have that practice fight?" Harry nodded – still not wanting to push her.
Hermione grabbed him by the hand and almost dragged him into the mat area. After depositing Harry to one end, she ran to the other side – her brown hair bouncing as she did. Harry took a relaxed fighting stance knowing that Hermione was not really a match for him and that he would be able to beat her with his hands tied behind his back. But he failed to consider one thing and in the process broke one the cardinal rules of fighting barehanded. Never underestimate your opponent. A really terrible mistake, considering how intimately she knew him.
~o0o~
Hermione had tried to fight fair three times but each time before she came too close Harry – he stopped her. This left her to contemplate alternatives to win. She knew as good as Harry was, he had flaws. The best advantage that she had was the fact that she had a read a book on him and flaws. Harry didn't have that advantage. She also knew him well to know how to exploit his flaws.
She observed Harry's technique awhile – meaning to allow herself be beaten by Harry – and then she noticed two defensive holes in Harry's techniques. Simple ones that the book explained well. She let herself be beaten a few more times, as she finalised the attack strategy.
It also lulled Harry into a false sense of security. " Come on Hermione," Harry said tauntingly, " I know you can do better."
" Don't try to be patronising, Harry. It doesn't suit you." Hermione didn't like to cheat but Harry's taunt drove away what little guilt she had felt. " So what did you and Alicia do at the Hospital wing?"
Hermione had expected Harry's concentration to waver slightly and expected to have to keep doing it a while before he would be free to an attack. She had not expected what had happened next in her wildest imaginings. Harry was so completely caught off guard after the first question that he had stopped moving totally.
Hermione recovered from her surprise quickly enough and closed the distance between them. She faked a left punch to make Harry try to do dodge it to the right. When he did, she was already in motion to connect her right hand to his face. Harry was knocked back, and in the confusion, Hermione managed to deal him a decisive punch to his stomach. Harry's self preservation instinct kicked in and he crouched down to protect himself from further attacks, but in doing so he opened up his defences further more. It was not a mistake that David Dippet had warned him a lot about. Hermione didn't go easy on him – she laced her fingers on both her hands together and hit him on his back – hard.
Harry gave a small grunt and fell to the ground, face first and he didn't move.
At first Hermione thought Harry was faking it, but then she detect no breathing. She started to panic, thinking that she had hit him too hard, killing him. She knelt down to check if he was all right, but as soon as her hand touched his shoulder, Harry grabbed onto it and rolled sideways. The result was that Hermione was pinned on the ground with Harry lying across her stomach. " Did you figure only one of us ever resorted to dirty tricks?" Harry had a smirk on his face, and Hermione's face burned at the accusation that she had cheated.
True it might have been that – but she was not about to admit to that – specially if she could think of a damned decent explanation for it. " It's not cheating." She said defiantly, " It's not my fault if mentioning her makes you lose concentration. You're so hot and bo..."
Harry did not let her finish the sentence. Putting a bit of pressure on her arm Hermione had to stop herself from saying the rest so that she could adjust to the new heightened level of pain. " Let's not go there." Harry said, all the while putting more pressure on her arm. " I could say the same thing about you and Victor over the summer."
Hermione's face kept burning. " I don't go all gooey around him, or about him!"
" Gooey?" Harry almost let go of Hermione because the way it had made him snort out in laughter. Her choice of words had been all the more entertaining since he was sure she had a larger vocabulary than him. A fact that he made clear to her.
" You know what I mean."
" Gooey?" Harry still teased.
" Stop it!" she said trying to get out from under Harry.
" Interesting choice of words." Harry had to pull at her arm to make sure that she did not manage to get escape from under him. " Of all the things you could have had said, you said, 'Gooey'." He snorted again with laughter.
Hermione did not like being on the receiving end of Harry's teasing and finally decided that she would hit back properly. She did not need Harry to tease her about Victor in public. Ron was grumpy enough about her and Victor being a couple. As much fun as it was to make Ron suffer for his behaviour at the ball and since, she did not want to face him if Harry started to tease her about her fondness of Victor too.
She suspected that Ron would not be as mild as he had been – especially since he did not have any " proper" confirmation in his mind that they were more than just friends. And Harry teasing would lead Ron to believe more than she wanted to let him know.
" Get off me, Harry." She said, " Or..Or..."
" Or what?"
" or I'll tell about your little crush on Alicia."
Harry didn't phase. " I'll tell about Vicky." Harry said back.
" So?" Hermione said defiantly. " Everyone already knows about Victor. Pity, I can't say the same thing about you and Alicia." Harry's face went through several expressions and Hermione found each of them more amusing than previous one.
" You wouldn't dare." He said with the final expression – horror. That look made her smile. It was hard for Harry to tell if Hermione was serious or not. The Hermione he knew would never do anything as out of character as that – especially considering how rumours made her suffer the year before. But then he considered the fact that Hermione he knew for four years from the one that he had gotten to know in Morocco. And after seeing her almost a year after he had last seen her – he was not certain who the "real" Hermione was. The biggest enigma was if it was Hermione that had changed or himself.
Hermione on the other hand was thinking that if Harry knew her at all. As far as she knew, spreading rumours had never been one her main traits — she had never done it, and never would as long as she kept her whole sanity. Somehow she felt pleased that she had the ability to totally surprise and confuse Harry. " I would." She said, almost meaning it. " Now, Mister Potter, be a gentleman and get off me."
Harry mumbled lowly about gossiping girls and let her go. He might have had thought that she was finished, but she wasn't. She intended to milk the proverbial cow as much as she could. " Aren't you going to help me up?" Harry took her extended arm and yanked it more than he really needed to. It hurt her a little, but she didn't show. She just moved to her side of the mat, getting ready to fight again.
Harry told himself, on the other side of the mat, that he had to concentrate on the sparring match and pay no attention Hermione's taunting. He was sure that she would use the upper hand she now had and he had to control himself about Alicia.
He also re-evaluated his own strategy. He scolded himself for underestimating Hermione. He knew that he should not have had done that – since he had always believed that Hermione could become as good as him, if not better. He just did not think she would be as powerful in the physical department as well as the magic department that she was. Plus he scolded himself for not realising that Hermione had read a fair bit of the Book by David Dippet and as a result know all the weaknesses that a master knows of his pupils. ' I'll have to take a gander at that book myself.' He thought.
He was utterly astonished when Hermione did not try to tease him again — so confident he was that it was coming.
Hermione came forward slightly and tried to fake a dive to his legs. Had it been an ordinary fighter, and that trick would have worked brilliantly. But this was Harry, and he'd been in so many fights already – and knew this most of the basics of the tricks of the hand-to-hand fighting. He waited until her fake dive was half done before dealing a punch to her jaw.
Hermione staggered back and looked at Harry with wide eyes – she had seen the attack somehow in her mind, but she hadn't expected Harry to hit as hard as he had. Harry took his chance to push a slightly dazed Hermione out of the mat with quick sets of kicks and punches.
" That hurt." Hermione said getting up from the floor – slightly wobbly.
Harry laughed. " It's not less than what you had planned."
" Oh!" Hermione raised her eyebrow, " And, what did I have planned?" Hermione questioned Harry – certain that Harry could not have had foreseen what she was up to. She always thought that she was good at hiding her motives in a fight.
Harry leaned forward closely, and whispered, " I was taught by an old man and a young girl (referring to Dumbledore's niece) how to fight. Don't you think she would have had tried to hit me there too?" Hermione did not answer. " Being the part of the male body with the most nerve endings and what not.."
As Harry said it, Hermione started to blush. She had never thought that her motives were so plain. It then came to her that Harry had been able to block all her attacks because he was predicting her movements on the information that he knew about her. To stop him from doing that she would have to fight as unpredictably as she could.
He patted her shoulder and said, " Next time make sure that you keep your eyes moving. If you do that you can keep somewhat of a track on what's happening and make sure that the other person doesn't grasp your thinking pattern, and what you're targeting at."
Hermione smiled stiffly, as Harry smiled broadly. " I think we've had enough of the fighting for now."
Hermione came up to him and gave him a hug. When she said, " Thank you", he felt the soft cushioning charm fading and being replaced with warm sand. The texture and the warmth was a nice sensation before the more abrupt and violent change of scenery happened. It was worse than the previous two and Harry was sure that, was it not for Hermione's hold on him, he would have fainted on the spot.
" Better?" She asked after a while and Harry nodded.
Hermione looked totally at ease with all this. Harry supposed that it was her mind and it did not affect her as it did him. It couldn't. She was part of the place where he was, while he was an intruder. " Let's sit down by that sunshade." After a few moments she spoke: " It's getting worse isn't it?"
" Yeah, a bit." Harry said.
" Here, lie down and rest a bit. I won't change the scenery, I promise." She smiled weakly at him. Harry lay down with his head on her lap. It felt oddly comforting to do this. He felt a lot of the terrible feelings evaporate as Hermione stroked his hair.
" Where are we?" He asked, looking up past the sunshade and Hermione, to gaze at the picture perfect sky. The salty, warm yet humid marine air was intoxicating. The quiet breeze seemed to gently stroke his cheek — for a moment, he imagined it being Hermione's hand.
" It's a beach off the coast of north-east France." Hermione shifted a bit to get into more comfortable position. " Everyone says nice things about south France – but if you ask me this is the best place to visit France. The beach is almost empty and look out that sea – so clear. And the food! Oh Harry! I really wish you could taste some of it… it's …" Hermione went a bit gloomy again. "…rather nice. Every time something bad happens, I picture myself here and things get a bit better."
It took Harry a moment to realise the significance of them being there. Hermione had purposely led him into a place that she cherished a great deal and yet had never told either him or Ron about. It was her safe haven from the world and even those that were caused by him and Ron. The things that they had made her go though because of their stupidity each year they had been friends made him wonder how many countless times they had made her visit this idyllic paradise.
When he was in Morocco – lost and without a friend in the world, he realised how valuable each of his friends were. The way that he and Ron kept abusing Hermione over the years for doing what she thought was right – for them – had made him feel worse than ever he had felt. It was made worse since she was always right and they still never listened to her.
" You ready to talk now?" Harry wanted to ask, to try to make up for all the wrongs, but he did not. For some reason, he stopped himself at the last moment, preferring to leave her the freedom of coming out on her own. " Want to know what happened after Alicia took me to the Hospital wing?" he said, deciding to confide into her.
Hermione nodded, remembering that Harry had related the events prior to Alicia's visit leaving the details of the actual visit. Harry explained what had happened. Neville's misadventure and Pansy's misfortune, when she came in on the stretcher and finally the dreaded card game.
" So let me get this straight." She said trying to think things through clearly. " You have to get her a gift – because you lost in a game that you two played… Mondock right?" Harry nodded. " Is that what has you worried?"
When Harry nodded again, she couldn't stop herself from admonishing him. " Honestly!" she said, " you stopped thousands of people fighting to death without even flinching – but the possibility of the girl not liking your present has you worried!"
" When you say it like that – you make it sound so…"
" Stupid." Hermione finished his sentence.
" I was going to say, cliché. But I guess that works too." Harry then took a slightly more serious tone. " And who says I didn't flinch? I would have given anything to prevent having to be thrown back into the past. Two sides coming at me. And both wanting me dead – it's no picnic and thinking about that time just makes me shiver sometimes. From the way you describe it, it's like I'm described as some kind of all-powerful deliverer in the book. I wasn't — far from it."
Hermione ignored Harry's ranting. " She'll like the present, no matter what it is — and I know how terrible some people's tastes are when it comes to picking out a present for a girl… come to think of it, they're terrible *especially* when it comes to girls… But anyway, she's your friend, and friends will like whatever you give them – no matter how terrible."
Harry blinked at her twice - his eyes widened by realisation. He sat up. " I…" He started, but then he amended, " We gave you something like that? Didn't we?" He asked.
" No!" she said very loudly – far louder than she needed to. Not only was the beach pretty empty – there was very little background noise that she had to get over. " No," she repeated, but this time a little softer and a little less willing to admit.
" We did!" Harry looked around the scenery. Looking for a familiar face so he could tell them the news. He wanted to tell other people so that they might remind him in the future. " By Merlin's beard! Why didn't you ever tell us?"
" I never said that I didn't like your presents – it's just that they… well, that they left a lot to be desired... oops," Hermione clamped her hand down on her mouth. She didn't intend for Harry to know.
" You don't like the armband too, I suppose," Harry said sadly.
" No! I liked it, loved it actually! - as I did all the others – well even more actually." Harry brightened a bit. " One of you finally gave me something thoughtful. I mean books are fun, really, – but since it's all I ever get, they're annoying. But, as annoying as they were, it showed that you two cared. That's what matters. Even though there were some gifts I could have done without – I mean what the heck am I supposed to do with a pack of dungbombs ??!! – I still liked what they stood for… Confusing aren't I?"
Harry nodded. " Very, but I believe I know what you mean. Just don't ask me to explain."
Hermione leaned on Harry's shoulder and looked out at the water. A while later, out of the blues, she suddenly said, " I killed someone..."
====================================================
I have the next part scheduled for release after I get a friend to read it over. This chapter was edited once by a beta – but I have to get it checked again. Hope you like it so far.
