Chapter 45

The trials for Sirius and Pettigrew were set for a Saturday, mid-September. Due to the fact that the Quidditch Tournament was to be held at Hogwarts, and that there was no way for Harry to stay 'dead' with all the reporters that would be at the school, Dumbledore had decided to allow Harry and Hermione to attend the trials.

On the morning of the trial, Harry was awoken early by Hermione who appeared at the foot as his bed, already fully dressed.

"Merlin, it's freezing." Harry whispered as he crawled to the edge of his bed and pulled his slippers on.

"Just go get your shower; we've got an hour before we need to be in Professor Dumbledore's office." Hermione whispered.

Harry nodded and headed to the bathroom, switching on the light in the bathroom and shutting the door quickly before it could wake up his dorm-mates.

He'd just finished washing his hair when the door opened again and Hermione entered, her anxiety over the trial already seeping through the bond to Harry.

"I've got your dress robes here." She said, from the other side of the shower curtain.

Harry grabbed the towel next to the shower and wrapped it around his middle before climbing out and sitting on the closed lid of the toilet. "Get on with it then."

Hermione already had a hairbrush in her hand as she began yanking it through his hair with one hand and slowly drying it with her wand in the other. When they'd been told they would be allowed to go to the trial, Hermione had decided that they should remind everyone at the ministry, who Harry was. This involved several minutes of torture for Harry as Hermione attempted to style his hair so that it would remain in its usual messy style whilst also controllable enough for her to push it back to show off his lightning bolt scar. She'd also done something to his glasses to enhance the colour of his eyes, hoping to remind everyone who saw him that he was the son of Lily and James Potter by making him a caricature of what everyone thought he should look like.

Once Hermione had finished attempting to pull Harry's hair from his scalp, she changed the colour of his dress robes to purple, which according to her 'complimented his eyes'.

When she was finally satisfied with how Harry looked, they headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. With it being so early in the morning, the Great Hall was empty with just two places set at the end of the Gryffindor table for Harry and Hermione.

Harry filled his and Hermione's cups from the tea pot on the table as Hermione ladled porridge into their bowls, refusing to put sugar on Harry's because it's 'bad for your teeth'. As they began eating their breakfast, they were joined at the table by Remus, Bill Weasley, and a blonde woman Harry didn't recognize.

"Morning, Harry, Hermione." Remus greeted, sitting opposite them and helping himself to a cup of tea. "You've met Bill I think," He gestured to Bill, who was sitting on his right, before nodding to the woman on his left. "And this is Auror Tonks; Tonks, this is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

The Auror snorted. "No one refers to Aurors by their titles, Remus, not even Mr. Crouch and he had a broomstick shove so far up his ar-"

"I think we get the picture, Tonks... Perhaps we should refrain from talking ill of the dead?" Remus said pointedly.

"I think I'd be more willing to follow your suggestion, if you weren't on the way to your best friend's trial. You know, Remus, the friend who was condemned to twelve years in Azkaban, for a crime he didn't commit, because Crouch wouldn't give him a trial." Tonks said hotly, her hair darkening from blonde to dark brown as she frowned at Remus.

"Uh, it's nice to meet you." Harry said, trying to take in every detail of the witch's face. Sirius had told him and Hermione about his cousin's Auror daughter and Harry was interested to meet Sirius's family, or at least he was interested in meeting the non-homicidal branch of Sirius's family.

"Uh, Ms. Tonks, if you don't mind me asking, you're not a metamorphmagus are you?" Hermione asked, and Harry could feel her mentally questioning why Sirius hadn't told them this about her.

"Just call me Tonks." Tonks said, looking startled at Hermione addressing her as 'Ms'.

"Or Nym-" Bill was cut off by Tonks firing a stinging hex at him, over Remus's head.

"Don't call me Nymphadora, William."

"It doesn't bother you, does it Nymp- agh!" Bill began but was again cut by Tonks hitting him with another stinging hex.

She glowered at Bill, before turning to Hermione with a bright smile and saying. "Yeah, I am a metamorphmagus. I reckon it's probably the only reason I got accepted in the Auror programme; I'm really clumsy, so I was awful at stealth and tracking, luckily I'm by far the best in the department at concealment and disguise."

Harry sat forward in his seat, instantly interested in Tonks and intent on quizzing her on every detail of being a metamorphmagus. "I've read that the principle is a lot like with animagi only, obviously, it's not learnt. Do you have a specific method for clearing your mind for the transformation? I've been struggling with my meditation, you know to find my inner animal, do you have any tips?"

Tonks looked somewhat startled by the way in which Harry casually stated he was in the process of becoming an animagus but, to her credit, brushed it off fairly quickly and answered his question. "You'll have to do the meditation alone I'm afraid, I've never had to find a form for my transformations so I've got no idea what you're supposed to do for that. I don't think I'd bother changing my appearance if I had to meditate; that's far too much hassle and I've never been good at that kind of thing... you know, sitting quietly. But when you do find your form send me an owl, I can give you a few pointers on the actual transformation."

"You wouldn't mind doing a demonstration, would you?" Harry asked. "I've always wondered what it looks like when metamorphmagi transform, the books aren't clear about that. It compares animagi and metamorphmagi on almost everything except how it looks when you transform."

Tonks nodded her head, and scrunched up her face, but before she could change her appearance Remus put a hand on her shoulder and said, "We don't have time for this now; you can show him before you and Bill leave."

"What? They're not coming to the trail?" Harry asked pouring himself another cup of tea.

"Professor Dumbledore has decided that we should, at least, attempt to make Voldemort question whether or not he really did kill you." Remus explained as though, with Harry going to the ministry this would be a perfectly reasonable plan to make.

"Right, and how's he going to do that, with me going to the trial as a witness and everything?" Harry asked.

"We're hoping to begin a rumour that you did in fact die at the World Cup and the Harry Potter that has been at Hogwarts this year, is in fact a series of Aurors and Order members using the Polyjuice potion." Bill told him, sitting forward on his seat and pulling a flask from inside his robes.

"So I'm not going to the trial?" Harry asked, eying the flasks uncertainly as Bill handed it to Harry.

"No you are; Bill and Tonks aren't." Remus began, taking the flask from Harry and filling it with pumpkin juice from the jug on the table. "You need to remember to take a sip of this every hour and don't answer any answers that Hermione couldn't answer for you. Give them just enough reason to doubt that you are who you say you are."

"But Hermione could probably answer questions about me better than I could." Harry said, thinking of how Hermione had known how he felt about Seamus before he had.

"Just give brief answers, nothing too personal. Act how you think people think you would act." Remus tried to explain. "We only need the rumour to get to the Death Eaters, Severus isn't supposed to know you well so if he's questioned on the matter he can feign ignorance or claim you're maybe acting a little different. Right now Voldemort is weakened but none of us believe that it is permanent so we need to grab every chance that we can to gain the upper hand."

"Right, so whilst I'm pretending to take Polyjuice potion and acting like I'm an adult, acting like how they imagine I would act, what are Tonks and Bill doing?"

"We'll be in Hogsmeade." Bill said. "I've not had much of a chance to spend time with Ginny, Ron, Fred, and George since... The World Cup, it'll be nice to see them. Everyone knows how close you were to Perce, you're practically family and if you're aunt wasn't so nice I think mum would've adopted you herself, so it's believable enough that you'd be spending the day with us too."

Harry couldn't help but smile at what Bill said about how the Weasleys felt about him. "But I won't be."

"No, I will be." Tonks said, scrunching up her face, her hair darkening and growing back into her head as her face lengthened and eyes changed shape.

"Bloody hell." Harry whispered in awe as he blinked at himself across the table. "That's frightening- what if you need to use the bathroom; you won't see, you know..." Harry's eyes widened, immediately mortified by the idea of it.

"Don't worry; I haven't even changed my gender... I don't feel comfortable when I become male, y'know?"

Harry didn't know and was a bit disconcerted by the idea of just being able to change your gender by screwing up your face, but he nodded anyway, worried that, if he said anything else she'd hex him like she had Bill.

"So why are we going to the trial?" Hermione asked, looking in confusion from Tonks to Remus. "Couldn't Tonks go and save the Weasleys from having to leave the school? And why bother with it all in the first place, people could guess that both Harry's are imposters but they could just as easily guess that one is real and one isn't."

"You and Harry have to go to the trial, because there is a chance that since this is such a high profile case, the Wizengamot may agree that a truth potion can be used. With the protocols that would have to be followed there is a very slim chance of this happening, but nevertheless there is a chance and we can't risk it happening. As for why Tonks is pretending to be Harry, almost everyone knows about today's trial and that Harry is giving evidence, so by people seeing a fake Harry in Hogsmeade, they are alerted to the fact that the person they think is Harry Potter may not actually be Harry Potter. I think there may be a plan for you to be photographed by the prophet in two places at once." Remus said.

"Well that is the most convoluted, pointless plan I've ever heard." Harry said finishing his tea and setting his cup down on his saucer with a clink. "But if Bill gets to spend some time with Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George, then I'm fine with that. Is there anything else I need to know?"

Harry was then given Tonks's Auror issue wrist wand holster and an old wand that one of the members of the Order of the Phoenix had won in a duel several years ago. When lending him the holster Tonks had stared at him long and hard, which was slightly frightening when it was your own eyes glaring at you, and told him that she'd be in big trouble if he lost the holster and so if he wasn't careful with it she'd continue to pose as him and get him in trouble too. This, in Harry's opinion wasn't a particularly Auror-y thing to do, but he was a little bit frightened of Tonks so didn't object as she taught him how to hide his phoenix wand in the holster and retrieve it again. The other wand was to be kept in Harry's pocket and handed in to the security desk when they reached the ministry; apparently Dumbledore thought his plan would work better if Harry was not seen with his own wand.

OOOOO

Even after spending so long going over the plan, Harry, Hermione, Remus and Dumbledore reached the ministry early, with just under an hour to spare before the trial began at nine o'clock.

The trial, had been labelled by the newspapers as the 'Trial of the Century', which was saying a lot since neither Sirius nor Pettigrew's case was as interesting for the newspapers as the trials for the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. just over a decade before. The reason this trial was supposed to be big was because not only was it regarding the head of 'A Noble and Most Ancient House', which was apparently a title given to old families, but it also dealt with the Ministry making a mistake which was a favourite topic of all wizarding newspapers and magazines.

Dumbledore lead Harry and Hermione through the atrium, past the hoards of reporter that had gathered to report on the trial, and into the elevator. They spent their time before the trial meeting various members of the Order of the Phoenix so that Harry could let them in on the 'secret' of the location of the headquarters. Harry and Hermione had been introduced to seven Order members, all from different departments at the Ministry by the time the trial finally began.

Sirius's trial was to be held in Courtroom Ten, on the very lowest floor of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Hermione and Remus filed into the courtroom behind Dumbledore.

The courtroom was already full when they entered and, with so many people in the benches rising in levels along each wall, Harry could feel the hundreds of eyes on him. The walls, which were made from some kind of black stone, had the disturbing effect of making the room feel smaller than it was, as though they were slowly closing in on you. Harry felt Hermione's hand wrap itself around his, and realized that, like him, she was fighting back the sudden urge to leave the room and never come back. They were led to an empty row of benches near the back wall where they took their seats, facing a chair in the centre of the room, the arms of which were covered in chains.

Harry looked up at the bench on the top wall, recognizing the Minister for Magic in the centre of the middle row. Glancing down at Harry, and then along his bench, Fudge cleared his voice and called out, "Bring him in."

The room fell silent as a door in the corner of the room opened and Sirius entered, flanked on either side by Aurors.

Sirius was deposited in the chair at the centre of the room, the chains immediately sprung to life, snaking their way around Sirius's wrists and ankles, leaving him incapable of any real movement.

Unnecessarily clearing his voice for the second time, Fudge shuffled through the pieces of parchment on the desk in front of him before looking up at Sirius.

"Sirius Orion Black, you have been brought here today, before the Council of Magical Law and the Wizengamot, to hear evidence on crimes you are believed to have committed in the name of the wizard known as Lord V-voldemort." Fudge said in a clear voice, and Harry couldn't help but smile at the Minister's inability to say Voldemort's name without stuttering. "The crimes of which you stand accused include the murder of twelve Muggles by magical means in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of Muggles and the betrayal of the whereabouts of James and Lily Potter to You-Know-Who, which resulted in their murder and the attempted murder of their son, Harry James Potter. You also stand accused of illegally leaving the prison Azkaban and evading capture by the Ministry for the crimes of which you have been accused. Do you deny these accusations?"

Sirius sat as straight as was possible in his chained chair and looked up at Fudge. "Yes."

Fudge nodded, apparently having already anticipated Sirius's response. "Due to the... unusual circumstances surrounding this case and the media sensationalism, the Council of Magical Law and the Wizengamot, intend for this case to be heard, and for judgement to be passed today. Does anyone in attendance today oppose this proposal?" Fudge looked around the silent room, before turning back to his parchment and shuffling through again, Harry imagined that this was Fudge's attempt to make himself look more important.

Harry took a sip from a flask, pulled a face he hoped looked like he didn't like the contents and tuned out the rest of what Fudge had to say; the Minister had begun listing a load of people in the courtroom and Harry found it quite boring. There was a weird atmosphere in the room, like no one really knew how to react to Sirius. Harry blamed some of this on the Dementors which were waiting outside with Pettigrew. Sirius and Pettigrew's trials had been squashed together by Fudge in an attempt to mitigate the damage done to his reputation by the fact that he'd condemned an innocent man to Azkaban without a trial whilst allowing a murderer to go free.

People kept shooting Harry strange looks too. They'd spent twelve years thinking of Sirius as Voldemort's right hand man and the most dangerous man in magical Britain and now Voldemort was back and a resurrected Harry was publicly supporting Sirius.

Harry was snapped out of his thoughts as Sirius was asked why he and Harry's parents hadn't informed anyone about their Secret Keeper switch.

"I was the obvious choice." Sirius said simply. "James and I were like brothers and we knew that Voldemort would assume that they'd make me Secret Keeper, so we switched. That way if I was captured and killed there would be no way anyone could pass on the secret."

"That's all very admirable, Mr. Black, but why did you select Pettigrew?" Fudge asked.

"James and Lily would never trust anyone other than me, Remus, or Pete with Harry's life and we knew that one of us was a traitor and, with Remus's... little problem-"

"For the court record, Mr. Black, could you specify what Mr. Lupin's 'little problem' is?" Fudge asked, glancing down at the Court Scribe, several rows below him.

Harry heard Sirius sigh, everyone knew that Remus was a werewolf, but with the prejudice against werewolves, it seemed unfair for Fudge to make Sirius point it out in front of everyone. "Because Remus is a werewolf, we thought he might have been the traitor." Sirius ground out.

"Understandable, given that he is a dark creature." Fudge said, nodding for Sirius to continue.

"Remus is not a dark creature!" Sirius hissed and Harry heard Remus sigh in exasperation next to him. "You're all so eager to condemn him and you don't even try to understand. Remus didn't choose to become a werewolf; he didn't decide one morning that he wanted to spend the rest of his life being hated by the wizarding world for losing his mind and having all of the bones in his body broken every month." Sirius looked as though, if he wasn't chained to his seat, he'd have gotten up and hexed fudge then and there.

"Regardless Mr. Black, it is irrelevant to this case." Fudge said looking slightly embarrassed by Sirius's outburst.

"No, it's not. That's why we thought Remus had swapped sides. This was before the Wolfsbane potion was developed and Voldemort, in an attempt to recruit the werewolves, was offering a cure to lycanthropy and none of us would have blamed him for taking it. It's bad enough having to watch him go through it every month, none of us could imagine what it was like for him, and even James said he could have forgiven him for turning to Voldemort for a cure, we'd been looking for years. Pete had no reason to turn though, he was always more scared than the rest of us and we always thought he was too frightened of Voldemort to ever join up, not to mention we were friends, he never had any reason to betray us."

Once the Minister had finished questioning Sirius, Harry was called forward to give his evidence, followed by Remus and Hermione. When this was done the Council of Magical Law and the Wizengamot retired to a side chamber for lunch and deliberation.

The trial for Pettigrew was to begin at two o'clock, which gave Harry, Hermione, and Remus almost two hours to kill before they were required to go back to the courtroom. Since everyone had just been reminded that Remus was a werewolf, they decided that it would probably be for the best for them to get out of the Ministry for an hour, and so Remus took them to Diagon Alley for lunch.

OOOOO

Seamus had known as soon as Bill entered the Gryffindor Common Room that the person accompanying him wasn't Harry and so was unsurprised when the not-Harry, introduced herself as an Auror called Tonks.

The Weasleys were subdued as they left the common room with Tonks; Bill had arranged for them to take a trip to Hogsmeade together. It hadn't been long since Percy died and as they left it was obvious to everyone that they were all thinking about their brother, if circumstances had been different they all knew that, as an Auror, Percy would have been the brother escorting them to Hogsmeade, not Bill.

When the Weasleys left, Seamus and Dean decided that they would spend the day attempting to teach Neville and a few of the Gryffindor third years how to play rugby, Harry wasn't particularly interested in Muggle sports and Ron was confused by the lack of brooms. Strangely, Neville was interested in learning about rugby and Seamus assumed this was mostly due to his friendship with Dudley, who according to Harry had been invited to try-out for a position as one of the props on the England under-18 team.

Abigail and a couple of her friends from Ravenclaw joined them outside, sitting on a blanket one of them had transfigured, and giggling as Seamus and Dean wrestled for possession of the ball. Seamus let out a shout of delight as he pulled the ball from Dean's arms only to be barrelled over by Neville, who had apparently taken to the game better than they had expected. Neville, who had also been brought down by his tackle, leapt to his feet and collected the ball before promptly tripping over his own feet, falling face first onto the floor.

Watching as Dean, scrambled to his feet and tackled one of the third years that had snatched the ball when Neville dropped it, Seamus retreated to the edge of their makeshift pitch to where the girls were sitting.

"So what do you think of it then?" He asked, sitting down next to Abigail on the edge of the grass.

"It's very violent, isn't it?" She said, wrinkling her nose. "You'd think that since they don't have healers, Muggles would play safer sports wouldn't you?"

"Quidditch is worse," Seamus pointed out, trying to imagine what the Muggle equivalent of a beater would be. "And the Muggle players are huge, Harry's brother's over six feet tall and almost as wide. Harry said he used to be kind of fat, but started on a diet and his school encourages the students to do sports so he ended up getting quite a bit of muscle."

Seamus pretended he didn't notice her purse her lips at the mention of Harry as she said, "Oh, you wouldn't think, looking at how... delicate Harry is that he'd have such a strong brother."

Seamus felt his jaw clench. He liked Abigail, he really did, she was clever and pretty and sometimes funny, but she had this weird way of insulting people without actually saying outright that she didn't like them. Like calling Harry delicate, that had to be an insult, girls must know that blokes don't like to be called delicate. "I wouldn't say that he's delicate, I mean he survived the Killing Curse." Seamus reasoned.

She smiled prettily at him and linked her arm through his. "Oh, I know that. He's very brave, isn't he? I just meant he's not strong, you know in the typical masculine way, but he's a very good Seeker, yes, he has the perfect build for a Seeker, skinny and fast." She smiled at him again and planted a kiss on his cheek. "We did like that thing you all did, what was it called, a scrum? I think we've all gained a new appreciation for those Muggle clothes you're all wearing." She said gesturing to the two giggling friends she'd brought with her.

Seamus stared at her, mystified by what she'd just said. If he wasn't wrong she'd just insulted Harry again, whilst at the same time praising him, before then going onto compliment Seamus's arse and legs.

Maybe if he wasn't so obsessed with Harry he'd already be in love with her. She had a brilliant catty side which, for some reason, Seamus found kind of attractive. Unfortunately, her cattiness was not aimed at someone like Malfoy which Seamus would probably have found quite funny, but at Harry who'd died for Seamus and he didn't really like that.

He'd been angry when, on the Hogwarts Express, Harry had told Hermione that he loved her and looked at her with so much adoration, it almost felt like Harry was rubbing it in that he was so in love with Hermione. So he'd gotten a girlfriend, partially in the hopes of somehow making Harry jealous and partially because he knew that he'd never be able to have any boyfriend anyway, his mother just wouldn't allow it so he needed to get over Harry in his own way; which was by getting himself a girlfriend.

As he'd kind of expected, none of this had worked. Being with Abigail didn't make him any less attracted to men just as, he imagined, getting a boyfriend wouldn't make him like women any less. Impossibly, his plan to make Harry jealous had backfired spectacularly too. Harry didn't seem to be particularly affected by Abigail, he definitely didn't like her, but Seamus didn't think that meant he was jealous; Seamus, on the other hand, couldn't help but obsess over Harry and Hermione or even Harry and Ginny which was also beginning to look like a possibility.

By the time they'd finished their rugby game and argued over who'd actually won; it was almost time for the evening meal in the Great Hall. They'd never actually played a full game; instead it had just ended up as a free for all, with each boy attempting to tackle the others, and even at one point, attempting to use one another as rugby balls to score tries with.

The Weasleys returned not long after dinner, seemingly happier than when they had all left that morning.

"You know, I'm not sure she's allowed in here." Ron said, slumping in a chair opposite where Abigail and Seamus were curled together on a sofa and pulling handfuls of Honeydukes sweets from his pockets and dumping them on the table between them.

"None of the prefects have said anything." Seamus said with a shrug. "How was your day? Did you leave Ginny in the village?" He asked, noticing that only Ron, Fred, and George had returned to the common room.

"She's seeing Bill back to Dumbledore's office." Ron explained, before nodding towards the sweets. "Help yourself, Bill got carried away. He hasn't been to Hogsmeade since he left school and since he actually has money now he attempted to buy the entire shop."

"Thanks." Seamus said, snatching up a liquorice wand and taking a bite. "So, did you hear about Holly Hunter, that Slytherin seventh year? Abby said she's pregnant."

Ron frowned. "How could you possibly know that? The Slytherins wouldn't want the whole school to know she's a floozy; I mean, does she even have a boyfriend?"

Abigail let out a choked laugh. "A floozy? No one says that anymore. Anyway, my cousin Christina, who's in sixth year said that one of the Burns twins told her that Nicholas Adams is the father."

"Well that has to be a lie, isn't Adams in Hufflepuff? No Slytherin in their right mind would sleep with a Hufflepuff, and for that matter no Hufflepuff would ever sleep with a Slytherin, it goes against the grain." Ron said with an air of finality. "And anyway, if Hunter really was pregnant and the Burns twins, your cousin, and you two know, the whole school would know by now."

"How do you know they don't? You've been out all day." Abigail pointed out.

"Yeah, but Slytherin girls just don't sleep around, everyone knows that. If you'd told me that someone from..." Ron trailed off, his smile slipping as he looked to Seamus for some kind of back up.

They both knew what he was about to say, Ravenclaw girls were the ones with the bad reputations, but obviously he couldn't say that in front of Abigail.

"Go on." She said sweetly, gesturing for Ron to continue. "Someone from where?"

"Uh, Ravenclaw." Ron whispered, wincing.

"Ah, yes, because girls from Ravenclaw house are sluts, whereas in Gryffindor you strong brave men only date Rosy Palm and her five lovely sisters." She said with a small smile, waving her right hand at Ron.

Ron stared at her for several seconds before his eyes bulged and his ears turned pink. "What?"

Her eyes widened innocently, "Oh sorry, I forget sometimes that Gryffindors can be slow, what I meant to say was that you're all know for polishing your own broomsticks, fl-"

"Yeah, I get it," Ron said hurriedly cutting her off and, if possible, his ears turning redder. "Bloody hell, there's something weird about girls talking about stuff like that... and for that matter why can't you just say what you mean anyway? I don't reckon Gin's ever bothered with that weird bitchy beating around the bush thing girls do. Did you get taught how to not say what you really mean or is it just instinctual?"

"Oh, now that's a ridiculous generalization. If you're telling me that girls are incapable of speaking frankly and that you've never heard a man skirt around a topic of conversation, then you're more ignorant than I thought. This may sound strange to you, Weasley, but when you approach a subject in a more tactful manner, that is to say not quite so candidly, you often get your own way." Abigail said, her smile turning slightly sinister as she stared at Ron.

"Well bugger that. You won't catch me dating a bitchy girl." Ron said crossing his arms.

"Good luck finding one." Abigail retorted with a smirk.

"Look, I know it seems stupid but I just don't understand why people can't be more honest about what they're thinking. Yeah, I get there's some things people want to keep to themselves, but if I went around pretending to Malfoy that I liked him and didn't tell him that he's a git I'd probably end up having to spend time with him, which could all have been prevented if I'd just told him I didn't like him in the first place. Like you, we both know we're not keen on each other, but we're trying to be friends and we both know where we stand. It's so much easier." Ron tried to explain as he unwrapped a chocolate frog.

"You're so very Gryffindor, aren't you?" Abigail said, smiling patronizingly at Ron. "You might prefer to talk frankly, but I'm fairly certain that you're the only one of your dorm mates who does. The problem with advertising your dislike for Malfoy is that you're burning bridges before you even get to them. Yes it might be nicer to not keep anyone under the illusion that you might like them, but it's not practical."

"Right, so assuming everyone in the world acts as cynical and Slytherin as you've just demonstrated you do, what about when it back fires? So you use your tactful, non-insulting way of saying you don't like something about me... my haircut maybe and I get the wrong end of the stick and think you like it instead, what then? You don't want to go ruining everything by telling me how you really feel."

"I'd have already planted the doubt about your haircut in your mind so that you decide you don't like it. As far as you're concerned, I've done nothing and it was all your idea." She said with a shrug.

"And you're all right with this?" Ron asked, staring at Abigail in horror. "Your girlfriend is a Slytherin disguised as a Ravenclaw, no doubt if we cut her open her blood would be green and silver."

Seamus shrugged, as far as he was concerned the bitchiness was attractive and he was fairly sure that all mothers manipulated their son's from birth, his definitely did but it didn't make him love her any less. "If I didn't want a girlfriend smarter than me I shouldn't have asked out a Ravenclaw. She can be very caring too, you probably wouldn't believe it now she's shown her Slytherin side but, I don't know..." He trailed off not sure how to continue as Ron and Abigail once again began their argument.

He supposed what he liked best was the fact that, secretly, she was just as insecure about herself as he was. She was pretty and clever and so bitchy, but underneath it all she was apparently just as worried about what people thought of her as he was, Seamus found it comforting.

He turned in his seat as the portrait hole opened and he caught sight of the real Harry, Hermione, and Ginny entering the common room. Tuning out Ron and Abigail's argument, Seamus strained his ears in an attempt to listen over the din of the common room at what Ginny was apparently so excited over.

"-get married, I just know it! You should have seen them together; Bill didn't stop smiling the whole time. It'll be so perfect too, Bill and Tonks can get married and then you and-"

"Ginny! That's not going to happen." Harry interrupted, catching sight of Seamus and Ron by the fire and making his way towards them, something clutched in his arms. "And it's a secret for a reason; don't go blurting it out in the middle of the common room."

"I wasn't going to name any names and I've still got my fingers crossed for you, you're so perfect for each other."

"Shut up!" Harry hissed. "Someone will hear."

Rolling his eyes, Seamus ducked further into his seat, obviously Harry and Ginny had managed to get onto the topic of how perfect Harry and Hermione were together. The problem with being in a relationship in the hopes of making someone jealous, Seamus reflected, was that it didn't make him any less jealous of Hermione for having so much of Harry's attention.

"Look!" Harry said, appearing over the back of the sofa Seamus was seated in and thrusting a tiny ginger kitten into Seamus face. "I got us a kitten."

"And by us you mean?"Seamus asked, sitting up in his chair and taking the kitten from Harry.

"Me and you." Harry brushed Ron's sweets to the side and sat down on the coffee table facing Seamus, his eyes shining excitedly. "I know you wanted a pet and after Cosmo was so useful sleeping in the dorm last year I thought we could try getting a kitten. Since you're mum's all allergic to cats and dogs, she can live with me over the summer."

"My mum or the cat?" Seamus asked, understanding instantly why Harry had bought the kitten. He hoped that by Seamus having an animal with him at night it might help him sleep better.

"The cat, I'll have come up with something more permanent by then. Anyway, what do you think of her? I had to name her, because the Ministry had to keep her safe during Pettigrew's trail and they needed a name, so I called her Simba but we can change the name if you want." Harry said anxiously. "It was the first cat name I thought of; thinking back, Nala might have been better but I think she likes being called Simba."

He watched Harry, staring at him with that innocent look on his face, like a small child showing their parent a picture they'd drawn for them.

The kitten blinked at him and Seamus looked away. This was perhaps, the kindest gesture anyone had ever made for him. Not only had Harry just turned up with a kitten, which couldn't have been cheap to buy, but he'd obviously thought about it, and taken a chance that a cat taking up space on Seamus's pillow might help him sleep better without the embarrassment of having someone watch over him half the night.

"Won't your aunt be annoyed?" Seamus asked.

Harry beamed at him, seemingly taking his question as acceptance of his gift. "It doesn't matter, she might be a bit annoyed at me but you can't keep her at your house and if she does help then it'll be worth it, anyway I did set Hiss free and most people like cats better than snakes."

Seamus rubbed his jaw; he liked Abigail, he was happy enough to be her boyfriend until now. He kind of hated Harry for it, not that Harry had any idea what he was doing, but it happened so often; Seamus would think about Harry, about his flaws and come to the conclusion that Harry maybe wasn't the best target for his affections, only for him to do something so kind or thoughtful that he couldn't help but fall for him all over again.

He cleared his throat and looked up at Harry and said earnestly, "She's brilliant, thank you." And then before Harry could brush it off as being nothing he quickly added, "So I take it from how happy you are that Sirius got off?"

"The Minister was so worried about him suing the Ministry for unlawful imprisonment that he didn't even bother about trying him for being an illegal Animagus and they gave him three hundred thousand galleons as compensation." Harry told him with a smile. "Pettigrew got life and they took away his Order of Merlin. Remus reckons if they'd requested it, the Minister would have had to sentence him to the kiss. But he and Sirius have had a lot of time to think about it and they don't think my dad would have wanted it and that by asking for the kiss it would be setting a bad example for me, about revenge or something. Not that it matters; I'm still going to kill Crouch one day."